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IMEW YOIIK

ILLUSTRATIONS

BRiTlSH MYCOLOGY.

ILLUSTRATIONS

BRITISH MYCOLOGY,

CONTAINING

FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS

THE FUNGUSES OF INTEREST AND NOVELTY INDIGENOUS

TO BRITAIN.

MRS. T. J. HUSSEY.

Sfcona Scries.

" Though all that feeds on nether air,
Howe'er magnificent or fair.
Grows but to perish, and entrust
Its ruins to their kindred dust ;
Yet by the Almighty's ever-during care
Her procreant vigils Nature keeps
Amid the unfathomable deeps ;
And saves the peopled fields of earth
From dread of emptiness or dearth." — Wordsworth : ' Vernal Ode.'

LONDON:
LOVELL REEVE, 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1855,

PRINTED BT
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOK, LiriLE QUEEN STltEET,

Lincoln's inn field3.

Order Hymen omycetes. \V'-' ■ ' Tribe Pileati.

Plate I.

AGARICUS CYATHIFORMIS, Buiiiard.

Late Ctip-sJiaped Agaric.
Series Letjcosporus. Sub-genus Clitocybe.^

Spec. Char. A. cyathifoemis. Pileus often two inches aud a half broad, sub-caruose, more or less inftmdi-
Imliform, the margin reflexed ; even, smooth, blaekish umber, with sometimes a shade of red; of a moist unctuous
appearance, but not the least viscid ; pellucid when moist, nearly white when diy. Gills rather distant, cinereous,
adnate when young, apparently but not truly decurrent, on account of the form of the pileus. Stem from two to
three inches and a half long, half an inch thick at the base, attenuated upwards, tough, elastic, sub-fibriUose, at
length hollow. A small variety occurs, not an inch broad, agreeing in colour, but the gills are almost ventricose
and more distant, the stem more nearly equal, the margin more crisped. Both, when young, are convex, and not
truly umbilicate ; in the true form there is a minute umbo. The giUs are not then the least decurrent. In
A. cyalJdformis the gills are sub-ascending, rounded behind ; in the variety sub-ventricose, horizontal, and adnate
with a tooth ; in the one of a cinereous, in the other of an umber tint.
AoAaicus cyathiformis, BulUard, Fries, Berkeley, Greville.

sordidus, Dickson, Bolton, Sowerby, TFitkering,

tardus, Persoon.

— oj'athoides, Bolton.

Hah. Pastures and woods among grass ; common.

There is some elegance of form in this Agaric, but tlie sombre colour does not recommend it, and,
altliougli not viscid, the surface gives the idea that it would sticlc to the fingers and soil them ; it is not,
like many truly ugly members of the tribe, possessed of virtues which more than counterbalance the lack
of external show ; but then it does not seduce under false colours ; it will not distress your olfactories
with the worst of odours, like the elegantly -garbed Agarlcus sulphireus, nor burn the imprudent tongue
in the torturing manner A. torminosus does. Inodorous, innocuous, insipid, insignificant if you please,
it may be asked, why figure it ? Because a lai'ge number of students are assisted better by a famihar
common subject than by the scarce treasure, seen once in a life-time, and which research may never place
before the eyes of more than a favoured few.

The specific description, borrowed from our constant companion and guide, the ' English Flora,'

' From kXi'to5, a steep or declivity, and Kv^r], a head, pointing to the shape of the pileus when young, in
contradistinction to Omphalia, in which the pileus when young is umbilicate. Veil none. Pileus convex when
young, not umbilicate ; at length often depressed or infuudibuliform. Gills unequal, juiceless, unchangeable,
tough, variously fixed or fi'ee. Spores white.

embraces two varieties of A. cj/atkiformis: we have given it as it stands, because our subject appears
to be intermediate between the two ; indeed, in the same pasture we have found numbers differing in
every gradation of the scale between the major and minor extremes of our dowdy friend. " Sonlidus "
Dickson called it, but that is a harsh term ; taken in the primary sense it is inapplicable, — the worst you can
say of the poor fungus is, that it is dull and dingy-looking, but "dirty" it is not, much less "gross" or
" foul ;" and in the other senses of " sonUdus," one might almost as well call the poor soulless vegetable
wicked. We are great sticklers for the proper application of language, loving dearly our mother English,
which is often used vaguely and improperly, owing to a neglect of the exact meaning of words. Crabbe's
' Dictionary of Synonymes ' should be given to all young people, and kept at their elbow when writing.

Agaricus cyatliiformis is now removed from the class Omphalia, where it stands in the ' Flora ' volume,
to Clitocyhe, sub-division Ci/atJdformes, because the gills are not truly decurrent, as in OiiipJialia, but take
that appearance in age, from the fungus becoming deeply infundibuhform. This division of Agarics absorb
moisture in wet weather, and thus become many shades darker than in their dry state ; the texture, also,
is rendered nearly gelatinous by the "water-imbiber"' taking in its full draught, though almost coriaceous
when quite dry weather.

' "Pilaus vera hygrophanus."

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Order Hyjienomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate II.

BOLETUS ELEPHANTINUS, maennff.

Elephant Boletus.

Oeu. Char. Ilymenium distinct from tlic substance of the pileus, consisting of cylindric separable tubes. Name
from jSuXof, a ball; from the rounded form of many of them.

Spec. CJiar. Boletus elephantinus. " Pileus dead white, convex, but very ii-regular in shape, from an inch
to four inches across, downy in the depressed parts, cooping iu, and so thick in flesh as to leave but little space for
the tubes. Tubes yellow, short, the longest not more than one-third of an inch, adhering tirmly to the pileus ;
pores very small, circular. Stem yellow, from one to two inches high, and nearly as much in diameter. I named
it from its thick clumsy stem and its general massy appearance." — Withering's Arrangement, 3rd (not the modern)
edition.

Ilab. Grassy pastures.

Whether this Boletus has any right to rank as a distinct species, or is only a yellow variety of the bloody-
crimson Boletus Satanas, tlie two differing in mere colour as phajnogamous plants may, — petals being
blue, white, or pink not affecting the classification of the flower, — we are not bold enough to decide. The
crimson-pored Satanas, and this yellow-pored species, resemble each other closely in configuration and
general characteristics, with the exception of colour ; black and white drawings of each, might pass for the
other. In this dilemma, both being so nearly allied to B. luridus, that possibly they may be only varieties
of that Protean Toadstool, we have thought it better to distinguish the present subject as B. elephantinus
of "Withering, which it answers well to, tjian to place it as B. luridus, var. a or 3, disclaiming any intention
of amplifying species ; if hereafter B. Satanas is proved to have satisfactory specific differences, such as
ought to remove it from B. luridus, this B. elephantinus must go with that gorgeous Blutpiltz, as being
decidedly its nearest relative.

If B. elejihaiitinus had only once occurred, it might have been allowed that, owing to the absence of the
colour-giver, sunshine, or some cause inimical to brilliancy, it had remained pale, and unadorned with the
ruby which ought to have tinged the orifices of the tubes (for in all the lurid varieties the crimson hue is
merely superficial, or at the mouth, not extending up the tubular processes, and fades, or becomes obscured
in age by the ripening spores) ; for three or four seasons, however, at nearly the same summer period, and on
the same spot, a deep grassy field near woods, our yellow-pored friend recurred without change or variation,
so that it is quite constant to the same development and colouring.

The pileus in youth resembles a dumpling, which homely comparison must be excused for its aptness ;

the stem is quite liidden beneath the pileus, which " coops in/' as Withering says ; and this lobed, irregular
form is never lost in expansion, which is one point of difference from the common B. luridus, for that is very
regularly convex in age and scarcely ever lobed in youth, but it is also one point of ar/reeinent with B. Sata-
nas. The mass of tubes in the latter and B. elejihantiims is exceedingly concave, unequally compressed^
and in age is never convex beyond the margin of the pileus, as in B. luridus.

The tubes are extremely fine and close, indeed in young specimens scarcely apparent, and can only be
represented by the prick of a tine needle. In our present subject both tubes and orifices are of a clear pure
sulphur-colour, without the slightest tinge of red at any period ; in age they become dirty yellow or tawny,
not at all olivaceous ; they turn very blue when cut, but never the deep green dusky olive of B. luridus.
The stem is yellow, reticulated with red, and changing to purplish-red where eaten by insects ; the ilesh does
not assume a red cast when cut or broken. No peculiar smell or flavour distinguishes it : it is certainly
rare ; we never found it or heard of it elsewhere than in the field near Barnet Wood, Bromley Common, and
Withering seems to have collected it only once at Edgebaston. It has been supposed that his B. elephan-
thms is synonymous with B. edulis, but this is an error, possibly countenanced by the recent edition of the
Bot. Arrangement : but the last edition, which was supervised hj himself, is the only one worth referring to>
at least as regards Mycology.

No variety of B. pachi/pus has a white pileus, and granting that so respectable a fungus might indulge
in masquerade for once, greater discrepancies from B. elephantinus would remain behind ; true, the pores
are yellow, but their mass is not concave, nor the tubes shallow, and it assumes no blue or green when cut
or broken.

Boletus Satanas is given in the first series of these illustrations as B. luridus, var. a.

We feel almost certain that our B. elephantinus is B. erythropus of Krombholz, if not of Fries.

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Order Gasterojiycetes.' Sub-order Myxoc/astres:

Plate III.

LYCOGALA EPIDENDRUM, l-

Scarlet Lycogala.

innmis.

Gen. Char. Peridium determinate, composed of a double membrane, somewhat warty, persistent, bursting
at the apex. Flocci very delicate. Named by MicUeli from Xvkos, a toolf, and yaXa, milk.

Spec. C/iar. Lycogala epidendeum. Sub-globose, blood-red,, thin, brownish-grey, punctato-scabrous
mouth irregular ; contents of the peridium at first fluid, brUliant scarlet, oozing out in drops when fractured ;
afterwards glutinous, paler when dry.
Lycogala epidendrum. Fries, Berkeley.

niiniata, Persoon, Motigeot §' Nestler, Greville.

Lycopeedon epidendrum, Liiiiiaus, BidUard, Withering, Sowerhy.

Hab. On rotten stumps and pales. Spring and autumn.

The superstition that the milk of a cruel, ravenous creature like the wolf, partakes of the nature of
its food, is a very old one, and not more unreasonable than most other superstitions. The sweet, mild,
bland fluid, converted from vegetable food, could scarcely be supposed to have anything in common with
that wliich Macaulay explains the manufacture of :

" The ravening she-wolf knew them,
And licked them o'er and o'er,
And gave them of her own fierce milk.
Rich with raw flesh and gore."

No wonder the marvellous twins turned out as they did ! We can scarcely suppose that if their
foster-mother had happened to be a patient ass or a gentle ewe, the nursHngs would not have acquired
those milder natures ; — whether to the world's loss or gain, who shall say ?

When Micheli saw crimson drops flow from a wounded fungus, he naturally enough called it " woK's
milk ;" Lycogala, however, as applied to designate a genus, loses some of its propriety, as others of the
family have not this peculiar colour. Tlie Lycogala epidendrum is the only English species ; the
Reticularias are nearly allied to, and have erroneously been classed with, it; therefore a description
of them may not be out of place here.

' Prom yaarfip, the stomach, and /ivKrjs, a fnngus. Hymenium included in the receptacle.
2 From fii^a, mucus, and yaa-Trjp, the belly. At first very soft and mucilaginous.

On tlie decayed stump of a tree^ or similar localitj', but always ou wood, a white mass appears, at
first sight resembling a common puff-ball {Bovisia plumhea), frequent on lawns in wet weather ; but the
Bovista, although tender, and with a very fragile outer coat, is not, in its earhest state, a mere inspissated
milk, as the Rcticularias are, — genuine Mi/xogastres, which might be supposed, but for their after
development, to consist only of oozing sap from the timber ; that development is, however, ultimately
very beautiful, and unless watched day by day, the fungus could scarcely be thought the same. In
Reficularia umbrina a silvery pellicle of the most delicate texture encloses a mass of flocci which spring
from a common base, and are branched in a very elegant, distinct, and reticulaleil. manner, whence the
name; they may be seen to the most advantage if the spores they bear upon them are blown away;
various timber, oak or elm, when much decayed, produces this species, which is not uncommon.
Eeticnhria olivacea is peculiar to fir-trees ; the peridium is hyaline, but- the beautiful greenish contents
sliine through it, giving their hue to the transparent medium, whence its distinctive appellation, oUvaceas.

The main points by which to distinguish the often-confused genera Lycogala and Beliculana from
each other, are these : — in Lycogala the contents of the peridium are liquid when it is broken ; in Eeticularia
they are a creamy mass, which does not flow in drops ; in Lycofjala the ilocci, or threads upon and among
which the spores are situated, are very delicate and evanescent, so that when the spores have disappeared
they are gone too, involved in the same gelatinous mass, not powdery ; in Reticularia they are persistent,
like a powder-puff when the powder has been shaken away, the spores escaping in dust.

A very lovely little fungus of this tribe is Bidi/miuni ciucreum, which invests grass in stormy
weather ; the minute balls form upon the leaves and stems of short hue grass on lawns, kc, so that a
blade may be taken for a spike of minute buils of some lavender-coloured flower : these balls burst
irregularly at the apex, and then resemble a set of broken shells of some insect's eggs ; they will be
found to contain black dust (the spores) placed among reticulated white threads (the flocci), and if entirely
emptied of its contents, the inner surface of the peridium sliines like mother-of-pearl, reflecting prismatic
colours.

Lycogala ep'ulendrum is not common, and, when found, can scarcely be mistaken for anything else.
In perfection, there are few prettier funguses. No mention is made of its qualities, but some of its
congeners are said to have very powerful and dangerous etfecta medicinally.

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Order Hymenomycetks. 'I'ribe Pilcati.

Plate IV.

D^DALIA GIBBOSA, Persoon.
Gibbous Bcsdalia.

Gen. Char. Hymenium composed of anastomosing gills or flexuous elongated pores, formed out of the corky
substance of the pileus. Named from Dadalus, in allusion to the labyrinthiform disposition of the hymenium.

Spec. Char. Djedalia gibbosa. Sessile, dimidiate, zoned, corky, hard, elastic ; zones convex and tubercu-
lated ; dirty white, villous or beautifully velvety, when old cinereous, and gi-een from minute algse ; the edge
obtuse or subacute, often projecting at the base and very gibbous ; but not invariably so. Substance white, spores
extremely narrow and close, resembling elongated meshes of fine lace, except at the base, where they are rounder
and irregidar ; white in youth, in age cream-coloui-.
D.EDALIA gibbosa, Persoon, Berkeley.
Trametes Trlei.

Hab. On the stumps of various felled trees, often springing from fissures upon the horizontal sawed surface.
Rare.

This uncommon and extremely pretty Dreilalia we have been fortunate enough to find twice, at Wy-
mondham, in Norfolk, and on Hayes Common. In both places the manner of growth was similar, so that
we may fairly suppose it generally adopts that style of development. In both cases trees had been felled
by the saw, leaving a stump about a foot above ground : the timber at Wymondham was ash, at Hayes,
lime, botli bad been cut down about two years ; the slabs of wood cracking in the centre, as is generally the
case under such circumstances, the fungus appeared from the fissures in little velvety hemispherical no-
dules, slightly corrugated, and continued long in this state, without signs of the hymenium in the shape of
pore or siims. When any of these nodules formed near the edges of the slab, they expanded into the gibbous
forms of pileus which are proper characteristics of the species. One of the Wymondham specimens was
larger than that now depicted, and more spathulate, measuring about five inches by three ; its dehcate hy-
menium was crumbling to decay, and as every chance appeared to be in favour of its unchecked growth in
that habitat, it is fair to presume that it is the full size it attains.

The period through which it continues to gain a gradual increment is not easily determined ; the Nor-
folk specimen cited above, could not be more than two years old, though apparently disintegrating, but it
was evidently injured by boring insects, leaving dust on their traces : it was not a fair case of decay, possibly.
One year appears to change the poreless nodules scarcely at all ; we have remarked the same thing with
similar juvenile members of B. quercina ; and then suddenly a magnificent pileus has been developed.

apparently task enough for a season to have executed, but really performed by some agency of atmosphere or
temperature in a few days ; and thus with Badalia gihhosa ; periods of growth and of torpidity are pro-
bably marked by the swelling zones, and recedent lines of the pileus, as in Tolijponis igniarins. When
taken from the wood and brought into the house, Dadalla gihhosa undergoes no material change, but
appears likely to endure for years.

The \iolent death of the tree, and the action of the tool upon it, seem to have a great effect in the viW-
fication of the Badalias, whose spores are probably latent in tbe sap-vessels, and, without some suclr, to
them, friendly force, could not find their way to life, Hght, and liberty. " On deals," " on posts," &c., are
frequent citations for their habitats ; the glory of the family B. quercina, one of the funguses greatly abused
as a Dry-rot, grows on squared posts, &c., preferring evidently worked timber, and not the standing tree.
It may hence be inferred that this family thrive when the sap of timber is released from the wood, in its
vigorous fermenting strength, not when weak and flat, in the feeble old age of the decaying tree.

It would appear that while every idle assertion, if made with a front of brass, — every glaring quackery,
if supported by gravity of demeanour, — every transparent falsehood, if held in a glowing light — is believed,
swallowed, or worshipped, plain truth, simply enunciated, is the last thing the multitude can comprehend.
Dry-rot is one of the subjects on which it is impossible to think with patience ; one is tempted to beheve
that builders have an interest in extending and keeping up its ravages, as the greedy apothecaries of
Jenner's day did by the small-pox ; truth, however, did at last prevail in that case, and may again : the
man who may conquer the hydra heads of the timber-rot, is the chemist who discovers a tanning principle
that shall render oak-bark valueless.

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Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate V.

AGARICUS ACUTESQUAMOSUS, Fries.

Series Leucosporus. Sub-genus Lepiota.^

Sub-division Clypeolarii.

Spec. Char. Agahicus ACUTEsauAMOSUS. Pileus brownish-yellow, ferrugineous, fleshy, obtuse, hirto-floccose,
afterwards with acute, erect, squaiTose, echinate scales. Stem sub-stuiFed, at length hollow in the centre, stout, strong,
bulbous, priiinose above the middle ring. GiUs approximate, lanceolate, simple. Humble, sub-inodorous.

Hab. In grassy gardens.

We liave given the characters of tliis pretty Agaric, which was new to English botany when we first
found it, from the Epicrisis of Fries, but in some respects our observations differ from his, as notes made at
the time will show.

Veil matted to the stem, not consisting of arachnoid tlureads, but resembhng finely combed cotton wool ;
there is no well-defined ring, but at the middle of the stem, where the veil usually forms one, the web is
closer and firmer than the rest of it : when stretched and torn by the expansion of the pileus, it is seen
that the tlireads of the veil proceed from the whole length of the stem up to the narrow collar at the apex,
into which the gills are inserted ; the peronate wool is buff. The flesh reddens slightly beneath the cuticle,
which is tliick, tough, and fibrous ; the spines are composed of the fasciculated extremities of the fibre which
forms the epidermis, brought, like the hairs of a painting-brush, to a fine point. The gills are extremely
narrow, attenuated both ways, very close and occasionally dimidiately forked ; the stem is made up entirely
of silky fibres, looser towards the central channel, which has at first a woolly stufiBng, but is hollow in '
age. The taste is mild and insipid, the smell hot and disagreeable, like a flint from which you have been
striking fire.

Nothing can exceed the beauty of the appendage called with justice a veil, in this Agaric ; others
of the family are slirmuled, like Turkish ladies, in a thick close material, differing from the coquettish
sylph-like transparent elegance of this, as calico does from the finest webs of the Indian loom. No pencil
can represent "the delicately woven texture, and although we have tried our best, nature fairly defied us to
do her handiwork justice.

We have often repeated the remark that the Agaric tribes in general prefer being denizens of the
wildest and freest spots to locating themselves as a civilized community ; had they speech they would say,
with the poet of freedom, Ebenezer Elliot,

' From XfTrW, a scale. Veil single, universal, closely adhering to and confluent mth the epidermis, when burst
forming a more or less persistent ring towards the middle of the stem. Stem hollow, stuffed with more or less
densely woven arachnoid threads ; equal or thickened at the base, fibrillose. POeus more or less fleshy, but not
compact, ovate when young, soon campanulate, then expanded and umbouate. Flesh white, soft. GiUs unequal,
never distant nor decurrent ; colour of the gills white, in some varieties yellow. Solitary, persistent, growing on
the ground, not dangerous.

" We will wander away
Over forest and glen,
As far as we may

From the gentlemen,"

whose agricultural improvements^ scarifiers, clod-crushers, and all other ingenious machines for making a
thorough change in the constitution of mother earth, are so many engines of destruction and oppression to
them, while a meal of guano is an abomination inexpressible. Our present companion, however, A. acute-
sqnamosus, is quite of a different way of thinking; the compost-enriched kitclien-garden was the habitat it
selected on one occasion, on another the churchyard, among graves. We have depicted it, as it has
recurred for two seasons, at the foot of a raspberry stake ; being out of the reach of a spade, among the
raspberry briars, it will probably continue to appear in due season, for the white threads, or spawn, attached
a considerable mass of earth to its bulb, and all Agarics which thus propagate themselves continue to do
so while the ground is undisturbed.

Fairies, connected with funguses by many legends, have also fled away before human encroachments.
" Speed the plough " was an anathema to them as well as to the fi-agile tokens of their footsteps. A lin-
gering faith in " the good people " may survive in the wilds of Connaught. . . " Stop ! how many years
is it since a general belief in fairies prevailed in the rural districts of enlightened England?" "Surely not
within a couple of hundred years." " Well, then, I will tell you a tale to the contrary. There are,
near Buckingham, in the parish of Thornboro' (barrow), two very large barrows. About forty years ago,
the farmer who rented the field which enclosed one of these, attempted to ' plough it down,' but as often
as the share touched the base of the mound, the horses started, plunged, broke their gear, and went
kicking off, as no plough-horse ever did before, except poor Pegasus when they yoked him. After
many attempts to carry his point, always attended with similar results, the farmer was giving up the
attempt to level the obstacle which stood in his way, as ' a bad job,' when a neighbour said, ' Why, don't
you know the fairies have shut themselves up in them hills ? it's they skear the horses ; put a pan of new
milk to-night where they plunged and kicked so, and you may work as hard as you like in the morn-
ing.' The pan was set, was found next morning emptied of its contents, and merrily the team worked
away all that day ; but never afterwards were they allowed to proceed unless the dole of a gallon of
new milk had been paid overnight. Winter set in, the roads were execrable, the farmhouse a mile
and a half off, and at last the good man thought he was paying dearly for the privilege of ' ploughing
down the barrow." " From this barrow the Duke of Buckingham afterwards obtained, among other spoUa,
a most beautiful bronze urn, which formed part of the Mediseval Art Exhibition ; so the fairies must have
relaxed from their vigilance. But the country-people still say " no luck attends the man who opens a
barrow :" in some districts it is difficult to obtain labourers to do it, as they believe that any casual hurt,
thus received, will never heal !

It is remarkable that barrows, all over the United Kingdom, are placed under fairy gu^dianship ; and
fortunate it is, for this faith has, doubtless, saved many an ancient sepulchre from destruction. But it
was not merely as places of burial, that a curse was supposed to rest upon whosoever rifled them ; the boys
who ruthlessly defaced the inscription on the altar-tomb in the village churchyard by their peg-tops, would
have shrunk from plucking a daisy on the " fairy" mound. Paganism remains in villages and village
customs, above all in village holidays, but we should scarcely have supposed that even in the rudest, most
unlettered districts it should have retained a deeper hold on ignorant veneration than anythijig that has su-
perseded it ! " Did you ever meet the man who saw the fairy ? I do not mean in Ireland, I know Crofton
Croker's legends, but in England ? " Yes, I knew a bold keeper, who when on his midnight rounds saw
a grand supper spread under Puck's oak, in Whittlebury Forest ; self-invited, yet most hospitably treated,
aH,went merrily, but in the morning he awoke, with stiffened limbs, which never obeyed his wiU again. It
would have been heinous infidelity to doubt that this misfortune was not a " fairy stroke."

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Order. Hyjvienojitcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate VI.

AURICULARIA MESENTERICA, BdUard.

Gen. Char. Hymenium inferior, remotely and vaguely costato-plicate ; in wet weather swelling, gelatinous,
tremulous ; when dry collapsing but integrate, coriaceous, persistent. Hymenium heterogeneous from the pileus, not
concrete with it.

Spec. Char. Auricularia mesenterica. At first effused, entirely resupinate, at length more or less re-
flexed, often dimidiate, occasionally infuudibuliform ; the upper surface villous, grey-browu, yellow, olive, &c.,
fasciated and zoned ; gelatinous within. The hymenium quite smooth, or wrinkled when dry, pruinose from the
fructification ; purplish-violet or light brown. The whole plant gelatinous and tremulous in wet weather, hard,
cartilaginous and persistent when diy.
Auricularia mesenterica, Tries, Persoon.

tremelloides, Bulliard, Withering.

corrugata, Sowerhy.

Phlebia mesenterica, Bickson, Berkeley (Plora vol.).

Hab. On old trunks, rails, and the foot of trees. Very common.

This fungas was for some time placed among the PJdebias, but its discrepancy with the strict botanical
, characters of that genus, was at the same time acknowledged ; and it is now classed with the Auricularias
of Fries, a very small section of his family Aitricularini, which includes the varieties of Thelep/tora ; the
generic name being given from the likeness of many to the ears of various animals. With these ears, however,
must not be confounded the notorious ones of Judas, Exidia aur'icidce Juda of elder-stumps, they being in
fact not ears at all, at least not mycologically Auricnles. A simple distinction may be pointed out : Auricu-
larias proper have the hymenium inferior ; the Tremellini, to which Exidias belong, have it superior. The
true Pklebias come under the Hydnei, an accommodating community, which receives all waifs and strays
disowned elsewhere : the bats of mycology are here received in right of their very ambiguity, not scouted on
account of it ; few tyros would suppose, if shown Fistuliiia hepatica, Hi/dnum auriscalpium, and Phlebia
merismoides, that they could by any possibility come under one category. The same fungus, however,
often differs from itself as strongly as from another species : the moist, tremulous, gelatinous state of
Auricularia mesenterica is extremely unlike the crisp, rigid, collapsed condition in which our plate repre-
sents it ; when growing on the earth, which it occasionally does, nurtured by buried wood, the development
is more rapid, and grass, straw, &c., become enveloped in its mass without changing their position. It is
insipid and scentless, but ought to be good for some purpose, one can scarcely doubt nutriment being-
present in its gelatinous texture. Tiie figure given in the plate was only a small portion of a very large

mass growing at the foot of an elm ; failing the good qualities we fancy it may possess, there is little to
admire in it, but as it was formerly not very well understood, the botanist will be glad to have its proper
place defined.

Weather-beaten specimens of Tkelephora hirsuta may be mistaken at first sight for weather-beaten
Auricularia mesenterica, but for the colour of the imder side, the hymenium is buff in the former, in the latter
brown-purple; Tkelephora purpurea in its rigid dry state has some resemblance to it, but the distinctive
purple of that fmigus is on the upper as well as the under side, while Auricularia mesenterica never has a
purple tinge on the upper surface. It is only with washed, aged individuals of any of these varieties mistake
can occur, because no Tkelephora is ever gelatinous. The student should, if possible, procure a fungus at
several periods of growth, and never waste time and patience in attempting to fix a species from decayed
worn subjects. Another hint we must give is, not ruthlessly and greedily to appropriate every portion of
a treasure ; leave enough for further development and future crops : it is not fair to be the exterminator of
things interesting to others as well as to ourselves.

■ 1 — I
QJ

Order Hymen omycetes. Tribe Cupulati}

Plate VII.

PEZIZA RETICULATA, oreouie.

Reticulated Peziza.
Series Aleukia.'^ Sub-genus Megaloptxis.^

Spec. Char. Peziza reticulata. Many inclies broad, reddish-brown within, and strongly plicate and reticu-
lated ; without, whitish and pruinose ; margin involute, at length vaiuously split, the segments repand ; stem short,
thick, costate, sometimes obsolete. Odour stro!\g, like that of nitric acid.
Peziza reticulata, Greville, Berkeley.

Hah. On the ground in spring.

The Peziza^, in general, are quite smooth within the cup, but occasionally wrinkled and veined
externally ; this member of tJie family, however, is an exception, as the inside is puckered or gathered in,
forming a series of irregular promine)ices. Reticulated is a name that scarcely applies, for a net (as in some
melons) should be raised upon the surface, whereas, in this case, mesh-work there is none, the rising
portions being those between the confining lines ; thus the upper side of manj leaves becomes drawn down
by the strong veins of the under surface ; but if we correctly say the under-side of a savoy-cabbage leaf, for
instance, is strongly reticulated, we should scarcely aflirm it of the upper. Besides, in this Peziza, although
the upper or inner surface of the cup is corrugated, that beneath is smooth : by this character it is distin-
guished from P. venpsa, in which species the veins are external.

Whether the name suits it or 7iot, a very clean, pure, handsome plant is Dr. GrevUle's P. reticulata.
According to Corda, all the family are esculent, resembhng the Helvcllas and Morchellas : as far as P. aceta-
bulum is concerned, we can bear him out, and should have no objection to try P. badia or P. coclileata, of
which Mr. Berkeley says he saw a large basket offered for sale as morels ; but this example smelt so strongly
of nitric acid, we feared to venture on it. In some degree resembliTig it are, first, the large gregarious in-
ternally brown Peziza vesiculosa, common o)i dunghiUs, old hot-beds, thatch, in fact on decaying straw ;
this is smooth within, dirty white without, rough and scurfy, at first the margins are connivent, or
much inclined inwards, at length campanulate, but never repand j secondly, the Peziza rejunula, which in
colouring and other particulars resembles the last, but splits at the margin into segments, wliich are never
convolute, whence its distinctive name, from tliis character, repand.

' Eeceptacle patellifovm, margined. Hymenium superior, more or less closed when young, and concave.

2 From oKevpov, meal. Fleshy or carnoso-membranaceous, pruinose or floccoso-furfuraceous from the con-
crete veil.

3 Prom fieyas, great, and ttv^Xs, a cup. Cup open when young, or connivent. Veil superficial.

hiMc^" ■-■''■''■'' ^"f ^^'^

The hymcnium of Pe:i:as is superior (that is, within the cup), and consists of sporidia enclosed in asci,
or thecse (both words are ehgible) : these are cases of a cylindrical form set closely side by side, so that what
appears to our unassisted eye a smooth surface, is, in fact, when microscopically examined, found to be
covered with a layer of cylinders, the orifices of wliich form a plane surface, exactly resembling in miniature
the mass of tubes in a Boletus, only their position as regards the growth of the fungus is reversed. Each
cylinder of each species contains the same number of sporidia, but this determinate number varies in the
different sub-genera. In Peziza badia, examined whUe the tubes were yet hermetically sealed, but ready to
open, the sporidia were always eight ; we regret extremely that at the period P. reticnlata was found, we
had no microscope at hand, and have not, therefore, ascertained whether it agrees in this respect (but it
probably does) with its relative.

The Peziza reticulata from which our portrait was taken, grew in solitary beauty in the flower-garden at
Hayes Rectory, in the centre of a long-undisturbed mass of the common blue Gijnoglonmim, which sheltered
patches of Fissidens adiantoides (a very elegant moss), and had, therefore, been left untouched. Much has
been lately very judiciously said in some of the more scientific gardening journals on cultivating mosses, and,
as they are a most lovely tribe, and require to be near the eye for examination, they are worthy the care and
culture of those whose territory consists of pots on window-sills or balconies ; in the country, however, the
best plan of cultivating them we can advise, is to let them alone, to enjoy peace and quiet in cool cosy
corners selected by themselves. Our borders, we confess, are often sadly destitute ; but if " flowerless" in
the common sense, " flowerless plants " are never wanting there : we have a bank covered with the two
splendid Bri/mn-s, hornum and lif/ulatitm, the beauty of which attracts universal attention, cold, north, over-
shadowed bank as it is; and a dark walk, green all over with the curious Marchantla polymorpha, its nests
of tiny eggs the delight of young eyes, the gardener has long been forbidden to touch ; but we suspect our
mode of cultivating pretty things ^vill not suit that worthy fraternity. Well, then, nothing does better for
mosses than the nooks of a rock-work, shaded by ferns, and kept cool by large flints (moveable ones), stumps,
&c. ; and whenever we find stumps in the wood, covered with such beautiful objects as Hi/pnmii rutahulum,
or a neglected flint clothed with the highly-finished H. serpens, we bear them in triumph to the pet locality,
where ferns and other native treasures are deposited. Many of our friends will probably be interested in
knowing how we have contrived to make these flourish exceedingly, at very small expense, and this ^^■e
promise to reveal on the first spare haK-page.

Plox&VIll

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YiTice-[itBrcofe,lit>i

Agaricus styptic us, BuR.

Order Htmenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate VIII.

AGARICUS STYPTICUS, mm

StyjMc Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Sub-genus Pleuropus.'

Spec. Cliar. Agaricus stypticus. Pileus from an inch to an inch and a half broad, between coriaceous
and fleshy, serai-orl)Lcular or kidney-shaped, the margin entire or lobed, involute ; epidermis pruinose or furfuraceous,
often zoned, varying in depth of colour, buff or pale. Veil none. Gills not truly decui-rent, branched, beautifully
connected by veins, pale cinnamon ; spores white. Stem about a quarter of an inch high, lateral, ascending, dilated
above, pruinose. Scentless, but leaving a most powerful burning astriugency in the mouth and fauces.
Agaeicus stypticus, BulUard, Berkeley, Fries.

semipetiolatus, Schaffer.

bctulinus, Bolton.

flabellifonnis, Sowerhy, Withering.

Hal. On various decaying woods. Common. October to April.

If found growing on the horizontal extremity of a stump, solitary specimens of this pretty Agaric
are no longer reniform and "side-footed/' as when their development is impeded by a lateral position on
the wood, but the pileus assumes a regular orbicular form, depressed in the centre, and might easily be
supposed a different species ; flavour, however, will speedily determine the fact : that first organ of know-
ledge, the tongue, by which infancy tests and ascertains the nature of tilings, may often afterwards be
appealed to with success, when the judgment of the eye is at fault. We should be sorry to advise
swallowing as well as merely tasting, iu many cases, and tliis is one : Corda's account (in Krombholz) is
by no means encouraging to a timid expcrimentaUst. We think few would be inclined to make such personal
essays in the cause of science as the following describes : — " I cooked five ounces in butter. The taste was
so astringent, like ink, and burning, tliat I could hardly swallow it, without much chewing ; the burning
lasted above an hour in my throat, notwithstanding that I took everything sw"eet and sour that I could lay
my hands upon ; a quarter of an hour afterwards, considerable uneasiness of the stomach, and inclination to
reject its contents, prevailed, which ceased, however, without that effect, leaving great heat in the stomach,
which gradually subsided without further ill consequences." — Corcla in Kromhholz.

Care must be taken by those whose books of reference are not quite modern, not to confound
together things essentially different. It is often really difficult to make out what was meant by the okler
authorities ; and as those mycological articles once treasured in the Materia Medica are now expunged from

' From TrXfvpov, a side, and ttovs, afoot. Pileus excentric or lateral. Stem, when present, solid and firm.
Gills unequal, juiceless, uncliaiigeable, acute behind. Growing on trees or wood.

it, anxiety to ascertain the genuine substance has ceased likewise. The Agaric of druggists, formerly used
as a remedy for consumption, but one so potent as certainly to kill if not to cure, is Polyporus laricis, and,
we believe, has never been found in Britain, where the larch is comparatively a junior member of the forest
community ; but it by no means follows that, in process of time and decay, it may not appear, to reward
industrious students. Another fungus, called Agaricus sti/pticws, from having been employed, instead of
bandages, as a surgical compress, and also Agaricus qwercinus, from its growing on oak timber, is Dadalia
quercina ; the effects ascribed to the use of this species seem to have been due to the mechanical action of
its texture, rather than to any chemical virtues possessed by its juices. This soi-disant " Agaric " of surgery
was supposed by Sir J. E. Smith to be Pol^porus igniarius, the Amadou, or German tinder ; but that, al-
though recently employed to prevent abrasions of the skin, is a very different thing.

Even supposing any given fungus to possess potent and most valuable qualities, the ignorance which
formerly prevailed concerning the tribe would have rendered their use hazardous (indeed, it prevails stUl) ;
and the very various results reported whenever such remedial agency has been called in, implies that dif-
ferent members of the family have been confounded with each other. We can hardly expect that doubtful
medicines should be exliibited, when certain ones are in the nearest chemist's shop. Physicians cannot
ramble in search of " simples " themselves, and the professional devastator, calling himself " herbalist," ^
of course suppHes, whether correctly or not, anything asked for, secure in the almost certainty that the
inquirer after one Agaric is not able to detect the substitution of another; in fact, with so many errors
ill nomenclature, confusion is scarcely avoidable.

Agaricus stypticug of the recent Mycologists, our present pretty little subject, cannot be mistaken for
any of its predecessors in the title : Fries has classed it with a few congeners of similar coriaceous dry
texture, under the head Panus; tliis texture renders the fungus very persistent. During the winter
through it tlourishes, sometimes shrivelled by frost and keen wind, but giving out again in rainy weather ;
the zones are not so much variations in colour in the pileus, as alternate ridges and depressions of its sub-
stance. Even in weather-beaten old age the tough little plant remains attached to the stump, ragged and
paUid, Uke fragments of ThelepJiora hirsuta, their similar enduring consistence enabling both to subsist
after all characteristic external beauty has disappeared.

' It must not be supposed that these remarks are levelled at respectable tradesmen, but at such persons as
sell Belladouiia berries to make pies.

fes

E
g

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate IX.

AGARICUS INEBULARIS, ^.^.c/j.

Neio-cheese Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Sub-genus Clitocybe.

Sub-division Dasyphyllt.*

Spec. Cliar. Agakicus nebularis. Pileus four inches or more broad, compact, even, at first conico-convex,
obtuse, witli a broad umbo, round which there is a slight depression in age, but never in the centre, quite smooth,
when youno' fuligino-cinereous, afterwards paler and more ochraceous, the margin involute, pruinose, at length
waved, gradually expanded, but never plane. Flesh thick, wliite. GiUs subdecurrent, arched, narrow, very close,
sometimes in age emarg-inate, with a decm-rent tooth, ivory or cream-colour ; in the variety A. tnrgidus, of GreviUe,
thev are ochraceous. Stem from two to four inches high, half an inch or more thick, more or less bulbous and
incurved at the base, not rooting in the earth, but supported among dead leaves by a cottony web, in youth
appearing solid, but truly stuffed, firm, elastic, at leng-th hollow, at first fibrOloso-squamulose, paler than the pileus,
sometimes twisted. Odom- strong, like new cheese. Esculent, excellent.
Agaricus nebularis, Fries, Berkeley.

pileolarius, BulUard.

canaliculatus, Schumacher.

turgidus, GreviUe.

. caseus, Withering.

Hab. Among accumulations of dead leaves, in plantations, &c., not in dense woods. Not common. Autumnal.

There is a liiglily-fiuislied elegance about tlie contour of Agaricus nebularis when in perfection, with
which the quiet Quaker garb accords admirably ; colour sufficient is given to it for relief, while the purity
of the ivory gills, the delicate soft texture of the pileus, the snowy flesh when broken, and the faint but
not disagreeable odour of new cheese, must remove prejudice as to its being a proper article for food. Of
all the mycological dainties we have induced various accomplished gastronomes to taste, this Agaric has
had the most votes in its favour ; but we must explain, that it is as being in itself a delicate agreeable
article of diet that it claims attention, not as resembling the common mushroom, or in any way as a sub-
stitute for it ; no comparison can be instituted between the two. It is extremely tender and digestible
when carefully cooked, which is best performed by frying in a small quantity of fresh butter tiH crisp and
slightly browned, pepper and salt being sprinkled upon it during the operation. No Agaric is more

• From ha<jvs, close, and c^iXKov, a leaf, in allusion to the gills. Pileus dry, smooth. Gills close, deciu-rent,
or acutely adnate.

palatable to insect larvae as well to ourselves ; and when they have taken possession, we will allow them to
retain it, for most assuredly it is no longer worth a contest.

Although a large and solid species, A. nchHlaris appears to arrive at this weight and bulk without
deriving any assistance from the earth. Various kinds of dead leaves form its nidus, and, on lifting it up,
remain caked together and attached to it by a profuse cottony web permeating the mass, bracing up and
supporting the stout stem and well-balanced pileus ; whenever any circumstance oocurs to affect this
balance, the stem makes a bend to counteract it, thus permanently curving the bulb. Windy exposed
sites are never chosen as a habitat by our friend ; dry ditches where leaves lie thickly, and irregular
ground affording sheltered nooks, are its favourite haunts ; the beech is the tree preferred as a neighbour ;
the leaves of others may be mixed in the attached mass, but we have never found it in Kent, except where
the predominant fohage was that of Fagiis sylvatica. Not many habitats have been cited in England ;
but probably in the glorious groves of the Chilterns, as at Ashridge, where the silver trunks rise branchless
for thirty or forty feet, like " the i)illars of some fair aisle," an explorer might be rewarded by plentiful
groups of our excellent Agaric. It is strictly an autumnal fungus, for it cannot appear till leaves enough
have fallen to make a nidus : perhaps the leafy conglomerate affords an artificial heat which stimidates its
production, but the cotton sheathing the bulb must not be supposed similar in nature to the " spawn " of
mushrooms, it has nothing to do with the propagation, being merely a most admirable mechanical contriv-
ance to sustain the fungus upright. That an Agaric so substantial should derive nutriment only from
the atmosphere, dew, or rain, seems indeed surprising, yet so it must be, for the fibres of the cottony
investment can scarcely absorb and convey to the plant, from the leaves, any material supply of food ; at
any rate, it must be granted, that our elegant friend is not, like many plants, a " gross feeder," and we
naturally infer a purer wholesomeness as diet for ourselves from the ethereal natm'e of an Agaric's food,
than if it abstracted it from dungy pastures.

Agaricus pileolarius of Bulliard (plate 400) is our A. nebularis, which Persoon recommends in his
'Champignons Comestibles' as very agreeable in flavour (the tazza-shaped A. pileolarius of Sowerby, given
in our First Series, although a near relative, is very different). Persoon says it is common in forests, par-
ticularly those of pine; we suspect it is the vaiicty A. tiirgidiis, oi GreviUe, wMch prefers this locahty.
Fries is undoubtedly right in ascribing that more clumsy and darker-hued individual to this species ; we
had come to the same conclusion long before we saw the ' Epicrisis.'

There is a very magnificent Agaric in general habit of growth, site, and season, much resembling
A. nebularis to the cursory observer, but the student will observe that the gills are tinged with violet, and
the spores are reddish-ochre. Perhaps this latter is A. violaceus of Sowerby (not the true A. violaceus,
the "bishop" of mushrooms), confused with tlie Blewit, A. personatns, but referred by Fries to Cortinarius
myrtillinus ; another season must elapse before we can settle this question satisfactorily.

><^

GO
O

- 1 — I
IN]

■3

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Cujmlati.

Plate X.

PEZIZA TUBEROSA, Buinani.

Tuberous Peziza.
Series Aleurja.* Sub-genus Geopyxis.^

Spec. Char. Peziza tuberosa. Cup thin, infundibuliform, bright brown, at length pallid. Stem from one
to three inches long, running into the earth, springing from a shapeless black tuber.
Peziza tuberosa, BulUard, Dickson, Soioerhy, TFithering, Berkeley.

Hah. Spring. Not common.

There are but two long-stemmed Pezizas : cue, P. macrojpus, is a delicate, mouse-coloured, teoderly-
membranaceous cup, placed upon a slender stem above ground, the shape resembling an antique shallow
drinking-glass ; this species is solitary and rare ; the other is tliis singular fungus called P. tuberosa, because
the long stem, which is entirely below the soil, springs from a small black tuber. Many collectors might find
the bright brown cups, which are gregarious, without the slightest suspicion that they had any stem at all.
In woody glades, where Anemone nemorosa and the "pig-nut" {Buniwn Jfexuosuni) abound, this Peziza may
often be found also, which led to the idea that it was parasitic upon a root of one or other of these plants ;
but the " shapeless black tuber " has since been determined to possess a fungoid nature, and Mr. Berkeley
supposes, as Sowerby first suggested, that the tuber may be Sclerot'ium^ fungorum, var. lacimosum, which is
described as "hard, lacunose, black, subterraneous;" and as Agarieus tuberosum grows often par^sitically
from one Sclerotium ffimgonm), this idea of the Peziza finding a matrix in another is a reasonable sup-
position. A section, taken quite tlu-ough both, proves the tuber and' stem to be homogeneous, no point of
separation is internally traceable ; but this is not a proof that originally it was so, for the Peziza might con-
vert the substance of the Sclerotium into its own. Some SpJiarias fill up and change the structure of the
insects they fasten on so completely, that their wliole internal substance becomes fungoid : witness the ex-
traordinary Australian members of that famil}-, wliich are at least as great paradoxes as any of the others in
those regions, so startling to our old-world ideas. The great famUy SpJiaria contains a vast variety of
beautiful and most curious species, difl'ering exceedingly in size, character, and mode of growth, but very
few of them fit subjects for our style of illustration; as, however, we have nothing more to say touchin<^

' From oKevpov, meal. Fleshy or caruoso-membranaceous, pruinose or floccoso-furfuraceous from the concrete
veil.

2 From y^, earth, and nv^\s, a cup. Cup at first closed. Veil innate.

'^ Oen, Char. More or less round, rootless, covered with a thin bark-like epidermis; bearing fruit, but rarely
all round. Named from <tkKtjp6s, hard.

Peziza tuherom, and having before explained the general characters and botanical structure of Pezizas in
general, we hope a few particulars respecting a most wonderful Sphmria will prove interesting, althougli we
do not present our figures of it, as it is not " British ; " we have, however, two British Spharias, similarly
produced on the dead larvae and pupae of insects, and the topic seems scarcely irrelevant to our present
article, since it helps to explain the probable conversion of the substance of Sderotium, by the parasitic
Peziza tuberosa.

The caterpillar with a Spliaria growing from it, of wliich we made as correct a portrait as possible,
and wliich portrait is now before us, is the larva of Hepialus virescens of Doubleday, found in New
Zealand ; it is as large as those of our larger Sphinxes ; all colour has vanished, but the contour remains
perfect. From the head proceeds a rigid, contorted stem, six or seven inches long, Uke a dry twig, or very
solid herbaceous fiower-stem ; the upper portion, for about one-third of its length, is closely beset with
minute spheres, many broken open and containing dust-like bodies. When first we examined this curious
object, thinking of Tartarian lambs, and similar ingenious fabrications, we shrewdly suspected that in his
native paradise of ferns, a cunning New Zealander had trimmed the rhizoma of some creeping fern into this
caterpillar, and that the fructification was analogous to that of the Adder's-tongue ; but being assured, on
competent authority, that a powerful microscope developed asci and sporidia in the capsules, which con-
sequently were true SpJiarias — that we had in England both a caterpillar Spliaria {militaris) and a chrysalis
Sp/iaria [entomorrhiza) about which no question had ever been raised, and fine specimens of both had been
found by Mr. Berkeley in person — it only remained to admire, in acquiescing wonder, one more of the
marvels of creation. ••

The following valuable information was transmitted by Dr. Joseph D. Hooker, of H. M. discovery-ship
Erebus : — " About Spharia Rohertsii I collected all the information and as many specimens as I could, but
still am much at a loss to account for its development. They are found in s]Dring, generally under tree-
ferns ; the caterpillar is buried in the ground, as is the lower portion of the fungus. Now both these
fungi [i. e. this and the following species') belong to caterpillars which bury themselves for the purpose of
undergoing the metamorphosis ; and both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Colenso hold the same opinion, that in the
act of working the soil the spores of the fungus are lodged in the first joint of the neck, and the caterpillar
settles head upwards to undergo its change, when the vegetable developes itself. I do not remember whether
you have remarked, in your ' Icones,' that the entire body of the insect is fiUed with a pith, or corky vegetable
substance, and that the intestines are displaced, which my specimens in spirits show well ; and then what
does the muscular fibre of the animal become ? It must, I suppose, be aU turned into vegetable, for the skin
of the creature remains quite sound all this time. This change may take place from the displacement of
one gas, and development of another ; it also occurs in the dark, and is hence somewhat analogous to the
formation of fungi on the timber-work in mines. However this may be, the whole insect seems entirely
metamorphosed into vegetable, with the exception of the skin and intestines." — Rev. M. J. Berkeley : On
some Entomogenons SplMfia (Hooker's Journal of Botany).

' Spliaria Taylori, an analogous Australian species.

■^

b
o

V-

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XI.

AGARICUS VIRESCENS, schcep

er.

Green-warted Agaric.

Series Letjcosporus. Sub-genus Russula.

Spec. Char. Agabicus vieescens. Pileus from two to four iiidies across, never viscid, fleshy, fu-m, at first
globose, then lunbOicate, expanded, much depressed in the centre in age, but the margin always remaining plane,
obtuse ; the cuticle is shining, thin, transparent, splitting at the margin, pallid or variously shaded with ochraceous
tints, covered with a thicker stratum, which is opake, ceraceous, farinose, broken up at length into iiTegular warts of
a dull verdigris or glaucous hue. Gills pure white,, perfectly free, but in age appearing slightly decmi-ent from the
depression of the pileus, unequal, rather distant, forked pai-ticularly at the junction with the stem, exceedingly crisp,
fii-m, and brittle, varying greatly in breadth in difl'erent individuals, for the most part sub-lanceolate. Stem white,
sub-ri\'ulose, thick, nearly equal, hard, compact, not stuffed, but homogeneous, entkely composed of cells {spongioso-
solidus), softening in the centre with age. The flesh both of the stem and pileus pure white, " sweet and agreeable
to the tast«, like a hazel-nut " (Kromb.) ; the flavom- approximates to that of the Champignon (J. oreades), not at all
to that of lard, as in A. Jieterophyllm. Esculent ; most excellent.

Agaricus virescens, Schceffer, Fries, ViUadini.
Rdssula Palomet, Tlwre, Persoon.
MoTjssERON Palomet, Paidet.
Champignon des Dames, Clusius.

Eab. Under oaks and beeches, in woodland glades. Jidy to October ; rare.

Vittadini is always most particular in giving the characters of a fungus, and carries liis descriptions
to the extreme of minuteness, so that, when he is right in the identification of any given species, there can
be notliing better said about it, and very little left to say. In the present case, the true A. virescens was
before him, and his portrait is the best extant ; unluckily, there our commendation must stop, for his account
of its qualities belongs in part to A. vescus. The Verdette has not the flavour he ascribes to it of " Cancer
astacus when broiled ;" A^ vescus does resemble sheU-fish more than flesh ; it has no " faint sub-nauseous
smell when fresh," but A. vescus may be fancied like lobster or crab, faint, but nothing like nauseous ;
that either of these delicate articles of food acquires a " smell of salted meat in drying" is'au imputation
we as confidently deny, as we confidently affirm that a rose, from wliich Italian noses are turned in disgust,
is very grateful to English organs. We should not have felt sure of our pretty greenish Agaric being the
Mousseron Palomet of Paulet, had not his countryman, Persoon, so identified it in his ' Champignons
Comestibles ;' he adds to his description of it in that work, " Its odour is very agreeable, without being
penetrating ; its flavotir is exquisite when cooked ; it is served at all tables, and is good with every sauce."

Sauce is, however, quite superiiuous, except a sprinkling of pepper and salt ; the butter iu which they are
fried (the mode of cooking we recommend) must be of the best quality, or it will spoil the delicate flavour
of the Agarics. In our own district A. virescens is rare. It loves mossy banks and moist situations, and
springs up at the season when heavy summer rains prevail ; never in dry or cold weather, nor on sunny
sites, nor in bushy underwoods, but where there is umbrage enough to screen, without suffocating, it.
Paulet, by choosing to call all esculent Agarics that grow among moss, " Mousserons," has brought
together things very unlike each other, as any one who compares this delicate fungus, called in the old
poetic style of nomenclature. Champignon des Dames (and well does its pure alabaster form, flecked with
green, merit the honour of being so dedicated), with the true Mousseron of cooks, A. Georgii, will perceive
at once : they are perfectly dissimilar. Corda says, " Eaten raw, the flavour is sweet and pleasant, like a
fresh hazel-nut ;" and in this our experience bears him out ; it is, therefore, remarkable that, when cooked,
few of the fungus family resemble animal substance more nearly than this. Eaten raw, also, A. hetero-
phj/Uus only betrays the similarity to meat it afterwards acquires, by a shght and not disagreeable taste of
pure hog's lard. These two Agarics, wliich have been often confounded, may be distinguished from each
other by this difference in flavour when in a natural state ; in the dish, we do not think the palate could
tell them apart; the substance of A. virescetis is more solid and crisp. Their being confounded with each
other is, luckily, a point of no consequence except to the botanist, as both are equally good for food ; for
if it were desirable to reuder the multitude wise on the subject, we should despair. To the " illuminati "
we may say : — The unique texture of the epidermis is a sufficient test from any Rtissula you may find. Pallid
specimens of A. keterophylhis, with more green and less purple than usual, have been mistaken for A. vires-
cens, without tJte warts ; but it never is without the warts except in infancy, before the epidermis is stretched
and breaks up in consequence ; these warts are innate portions of the outer coat itself, not superficial like
the fragments of a veil, and therefore easy to rub ofi' : they neither rub nor wash off. There never is the
sUghtest tinge of purple or red about the fungus, and the green is not that of an apple, as in heterophijllus,
but of a verdigris hue, " that of the foliage of pinks " (Paulet) ; the gills are more rigid and not so close,
the flesh is much firmer and crisper; in A. heterophyll'us \ki& gills are broadest iu front, in J. VM'fJwe/M
attenuated both ways, and altogether narrower in proportion to the bulk of the pileus. We can only add,
by way of advice to the mycologist who finds tliis truly lovely and excellent Champignon des Dames, " You
are lucky ; cook carefully, and eat fearlessly."

QJ
CD

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XII.

BOLETUS ELEGANS, Fries.

Elegant Boletus.

Spec. Char. Boletus elegans. Pileus compact, from an inch and a half to three inches broad, sub-viscid
at first, afterwards nearly devoid of gluten ; plano-convex, sub-ferrugiuous yellow, becoming bright golden yellow ;
margin smooth, at tu-st involute, then plane, acute. Flesh yellow, unchangeable. Stem firm, in youth thickened at
the base, at length nearly equal, yellow, becoming rufescent, reticidated and punctate above the ring. King mem-
branaceous, fugacious, in youth white, then clingy yellow. Tubes decurrent, minute, simple, golden sulphur.
Spores pale ochre. Taste pleasant, esculent.

The major form of this species, B. flavus of Fries and other authors, differs oidy in being more coarsely
developed in all its parts.
Boletus elegans, Fries.

luteus, Krombhok.

flavus, Bolton, Withering, Fries.

Grevillei, Greville, Berkeley.

Rah. Common in the Highlands of Scotland ; more rare in England ; in fir woods and under birches. May
to October.

Precedence should perhaps be given, in describing two varieties of a Boletus, to the major form, and
had we followed only our own ideas on the subject we should have called the present pretty species, Boletus
flavus of Bolton, var. elef/oMS of Fries. Perhaps, however, it was the exercise of sound discretion, such as
we mycologists are bound humbly and faithfully to beUeve our great master, Ehas Fries of Upsal, possesses,
which made him select the letter defined of the two forms, and that is unquestionably the minor, as the type
of the species. We say " better defined," because B. flavus, in its usual appearance and development,
resembles B. luteus {B. annularis of the older authors) very closely, so that to a common observer it might
be difficult to point out their distinctive characters ; while these are easily shown as existing between
the extremes ; that is, our refined example of the one species, justly styled " elegans," and that repulsive
individual which stands first under the class Tiscipelles, B. Mens ; we trust, however, some day to rescue
even liim from undeserved obloquy. Poor fellow ! he cannot help his ugly coat, but under it hes liidden great
worth. The use of the disguising coat is another thing, there we confess ourselves foiled ; but in this
world of guesses, perhaps a conjecture pretty near tlie truth may present itself to some inquiring student.
" Because " cannot always follow " why," or this mortal would assume at once the promised immortahty,
when we shall no longer " see tlu-ough a glass darkly :" then we shall know, no longer guess, and then the
investigator who reverentially seeks in Nature the handiwork of Nature's God, shall verily have his reward.

Ciorda speaks in high terms of Boletus fiavus, as well as of B. luteus ; they are, in Bohemia, boons
given to man mthout the " sweat of his brow," excellent diet, springing spontaneously in barren and
desolate places. We have never eaten the pretty yellow fungus now depicted, but should not hesitate to
make a dish of it if a sufficient quantity of the dainty could be procured here ; but, alas for us Southrons !
it might be a bonne louche (many things are "little and good"), but never more than a " loiicJu'e"
could be collected in these localities ; the larger variety in some seasons is plentiful enough to supply the
cook, but it so early becomes the prey of insects that only in a juvenile state would it be proper for the
table.

But utility, much as we praise when we discover it, is not all in all ; unless we declare to be useful,
everything that pleases the eye and charms the fancy ; and in that sense (in confidence) we do believe all
has utility, for if the bow-string of care were strained for ever without taking rest, it would — we know it
does — snap asunder. How many, worn into premature old^ age, into unbecile dotage, into raving insanity,
might have been healthy, flourishing, intelligent, if the external universe had diverted their minds from the
narrow cells of business ; if they could have seen the beauty of a landscape, without thinking of the value
of the estate, or have estimated the wondrous fabric a tree is, when they measuied its solid contents of
timber ! But, from digression, to return to Boletus elegans : apart from the sense of touch (fingers invo-
luntarily recoiling from slimy articles), this fungus recommends itself in various ways to our attention : by
its colour in particular, which, when the pileus emerges fi'om a bed of the gayest green moss, under the
dark sombre boughs of Scotch pines, catches the eye with most agreeable effect ; relieving the arid, barren
ground strewed with decaying cones and " needle-leaves ;" its fresh-growing beauty contrasting with
hoary decay, its colour with shadows, its soft rotund form with angles and asperities. Such golden spots
gem a hving landscape, but would be mere patches of colour in a painting. It is unfortunate that all the
gay colours of funguses are unavailable to the ai-tist : it is not merely a question of stature, but their simple
shape with unbroken contour, which renders them of no foreground utility ; they would resemble at best
scarlet or yellow pebbles. A much more minute growth, that of the Leprarias (members of the great
family Lichenes), no painter would consent to see expunged from Nature's picturesque stock of objects, for
nearly all the weather-stains of stones, and all the white and sulphur-coloured patches wliich relieve the
grey bark of trees — making lights to catch the light — are among them.

-H
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■ r-H

Order Htmenomycetes. Tribe Cupulati.

Plate XIII.

PEZIZA BADIA, var, Pmoo.

Bric/ht-brown Peziza.
Series Aleukia. Sub-genvis Megalopyxis.

Spec. Char. Peziza badia. rrom one inch to two inches or more broad, sub-csespitose, nearly sessile, irre-
gular, flexiious, entire, margin at first involute ; extremely changeable in colour, which greatly depends on the state
of moisture ; within, brown, rufous-purplish or olive, without paler, whitish, pruinose, \ti11ous and often lacunose at
the base. The same individual loses colour in diy weather, or becomes dark when charged with rain, so as to be
scarcely recognizable.
Peziza badia, Persooii, Berkeley, Fries.

Hab. In gardens ; at the edges of lawns in flower-beds ; not rare near London. Spring and summer. Esculent.

For several seasons this truly elegant Peziza has appeared after heavy spring and summer rains, run-
ning in groups along the edge of the sod bordering a peat-bed, on the lawn at Hayes Rectory ; preferring
those portions shaded by the decumbent brandies of Daphne Cneorum, a most fragrant and elegant bower for
the delicate waxy cups, so easily chipped and split. Having, at the time we found Peziza badia, the loan
of a most perfect microscope, an excellent opportunity was afforded of studying the structure of the hyme-
nium. The tubes were compactly wedged together, but each distinct and separable from the others, like
the tubes of a Boletus, the lower portions being immersed in the substance of the fungus. Each contained,
universally, eight sporidia, closely packed, not like a rouleau of money, in the case, but at an angle with
it ; this may be very distinctly seen, from the transparency of the cases. At tliis period the mouths of tlie
tubes were closed, and the sporidia lay in them, all at the same angle ; when the Peziza had attained, or
rather passed, full maturity (for it was beginning to fade), a curious change took place — the upper two or three
sporidia placed themselves at an angle exactly the reverse of their prior position, in opposition to those re-
maining below, which thus were enabled to give their brethren a shove, to assist them in exploding from
their case. Such explosions took place under a glass, where no current of air could interfere; but when the
glass was removed, a puff of wind or of tlie breath greatly facilitated the operation. Each dust-like particle
was not simple, but a sac, containing two other small bodies ! Those minute reproductive bodies which are
called spores when placed on a pedestal-like support called a sporophore, as in Agarics, are called sporidia
when packed in tubes called asci or thecce, as in the Helvellaceous and Cupulate funguses. In the present
case, the sporidia themselves containing other bodies, the technical expression to describe the inner surface
of the Peziza badia cup is tins : " Hymenium superior, consisting of fixed asci, accompanied by paraphyses
(abortive asci). Sporidia eight, each containing two sporidiola."

HpojMm- '

Whether ail other Pe:izas of the same division have eight sporidia in each tube^ we have had uo
opportunity of ascertaining ; but it is probably so. The Helvellas, Morcliellas, &c., have the same kind of
fructification. Reflect a moment on this wonderful arrangement. The surface of the fungus appears to the
naked eve perfectly smooth, like the petal of an artificial wax flower ; examined by the microscope, we see
that it is frosted over with small bodies : we tap the fungus, and these fly up and into the air like a puff of
smoke. On making a section of the hymenium, a row of tubes is displayed, and we can count the minute
bodies they contain ; if we began our examination while the mouths of the tubes were closed, the mira-
culous regularity of Nature's works is indeed displayed, for all these countless transparent cases contain
neither one more nor one less, but always the determinate number proper to its kind. And these beautiful
objects of study are within the reach of all. They may be procured without money and without labour, except
a pleasant walk in pure air; they spring up, and attain perfection, and die away, and "no man careth for
them ;" in his pride the lord of the creation treads them underfoot. How many things are there wliich we
may be sure were not made in vain, but are neglected unless we discover that they are able to help us
in some way, to clothe, or feed, or ornament us ! How many beautiful and interesting things are wantonly
destroyed, when, unless we can show to the contrary, they have as good a right to live out their time as
ourselves! "Why cumbereth it the ground?" we fear if the same question were asked as to human
desert, thousands of mute witnesses might justly rise up against us. They at least answer the end of their
existence : do we ? Let us learn humbly to appreciate the handiwork of the Almighty.

To return to Peziza baclia, from wliich we have rambled away; a habit, we trust, excusable, since it
must have been acquired in erratic wanderings in search of our friends the funguses. The trivial name
badia may be correctly translated sorrel, as well as bay ; and the former is the more applicable term, being
exactly the colour of the Peziza when it does not assume a vinous tinge. We have never collected at one
time a sufficient quantity for a dish, but there is every reason to believe in its good qualities for the table,
and, on the authority of Corda, we intend to try it the first opportunity.

There is a very rare Peziza, called onotica, or ear-shaped, and the involute portions of our present
subject greatly resemble the human ear ; but it is the prolonged prick-ear of some animals that P. onotica
is like in configuration, — the ear given to the antique faun, in distinction from that of man.

k ■

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Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XIV.

AGARICUS ATRAMENTARIUS, Buiuard.

Inky Agaric.
Series Pratella.' Sub-genus Coprinus.'^

Spec. Char. A. atramentarius. Gregarious, csespitose. Pileusin youth obese, ovate, rugoso-plicate, lacunose
lobed, sprinkled with glittering meal, afterwards campanulate, obtuse, dirty-grey or brownish, innato-fibrillose, more
or less furfuraceous, the apex clothed with dark scales, the margin uneven. GiUs very broad and close, at first
white, changing to purple-brown, the margins remaining white, ventricose, rounded behind, quite free. Stem three
inches high, half an inch thick, fistulose, juicy, fibrillose, brittle, the substance banded concentrically, attenuated
upwards, the base nodose ; veil fugacious. Spores very dark brown.
Agaricus atramentarius, Bulliard, Fries, Berkeley.
fimetarius, Sowerhy.

Hah. Fields, gardens, waste places, roots of trees. Spring and autumn.

As might be expected, the Coprini, or Dung-stools, have little to recommend them ; neither beauty
nor utility (except, perhaps, as vegetable vultures) can be the boast of the majority, and one who has seen
large masses in decay, their black juices staining the turf and disfigiuing all within their reach, cannot be
blamed for pronouncing such toadstools a pest, and attempting by all means to eradicate objects so un-
sightly in dressed grounds.

Agaricus atramentarius affords a considerable quantity of black fluid, whicU is not to be recommended
as ketchup, although perhaps it is not poisonous, but the colour would spoil the appearance of any dish to
which it might be added. Some expounder of the mysteries of antiquity decided that the black broth of
Sparta was mushroom ketchup ! if so, it was a less nauseous mess than it has been represented ; but be
that as it may, youthful prejudices, contracted from the history of Greece, would always prevail in rendering
black a disagreeable hue in any broth. Sepias make excellent soup, but we do not think their ink-bag
improves the appearance of this Mediterranean dehcacy. The expressed ink of A. atramentarius resembles
Sepia in colour, not being perfectly black. Sentences written with it have stood the test of sixty years

' From ^rcrtowj, pasture-ground. Veil not arachnoid. Gills changing colour, clouded, at length dissolving.
Spores dark brown or black.

2 GiUs free, unequal, thin, simple, changing colour, at length deliquescent. Veil universal, more or less con-
crete, flocculose, fugacious. Stem fistulose, straight, elongated, brittle, subsquamulose, whitish. Pileus membrana-
ceous, rarely subcarnose when young, ovato-conic, then campanulate, at length torn and revolute, deliquescent,
distinct from the stem, clothed with the flocculose fragments of the veil. Fugacious fungi, growing in rich dungy
places, or on rotten wood.

without fading in the least, aud very little common ink can have so much said in its favour ; it is true
that, freshly used, it is not as rich in hue as that chemically composed, but then it is perfectly indelible ;
neither acids nor damp affect it. To keep it for use it should be placed in a glazed earthen or glass vessel
on a gentle stove till the moisture is totally evaporated ; when wanted, the powder may be mixed up with
sufficient water, in which a very small quantity of gum has been dissolved, to bring it to a proper con-
sistence. We venture to suggest that this product of A. atramentarius is worthy the consideration of a
practical chemist. As marking-ink it might be useful, superseding the destructive preparations from lunar
caustic, which in process of time represent the initials by a destruction of the threads instead of writing.
The Chinese mark their linen with an ivory stamp dipped in Indian ink, wliich is now known to be merely
a preparation of Sepia, vrith a little musk and gum ; and our colourmen's Sepia, as well as theirs, stains
indelibly, as any unlucky experiment with a cambric handkerchief in wiping out portions of a drawing exe-
cuted in these inks wiU prove ; — we can scarcely say, satisfactorily. The Chinese have found this animal
matter. Sepia, useless for cliina painting, as the heat of the furnace destroys it entirely : we fear the vege-
table ink of A. atramentarius would likewise disappear in baking, but where dry heat is not in question it
might imdoubtedly be rendered useful.

In some seasons, this Agaric is very abundant in kitchen-gardens and on banks by road-sides. While
young it is not devoid of beauty : the pUeus near the margin is regularly marked with very fine longitudinal
lines, formed by the backs of the gills beneath ; the giUs are extremely fine and regular, and prettily
mottled by the ripening spores. 'No mistake can be made between A. atramentaritis and its taU wigged
brother A. comatus, which is at fii'st white and shaggy, rapidly deliquescing, aud ultimately with a few
jagged fragments remaining at the apex of the stem, like the remains of an extinct Catharine-wheel.

. i^

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C/J

"GO

Order Htmenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XV.

AGARICUS FASCICULARIS, Hudson.

Smaller Fasciculate Agaric.

Series Pratella. Subgenus Hypholoma.^

Spec. Char. Agaricus fascicdl.vbis. Gregariovis, densely ceespitose. Pileus from one inch to two inches
broad, at first conic, then e,xpanded, umbonate, subcarnose, thick in the centre, more or less irregular from the
tufted manner of growth, ochraceous tawny yellow, the margin thin, pale yellow, with portious of the veil adhering
to it, often stained with the spores. GiUs greenish, clouded, adnate with a decurrent tooth ; spores dusky ferru-
ginous, with a purplish tinge. Stem from two to nine inches long, two lines thick, cui-ved, flexuous and unequal,
hollow, fibrillose or squaraulose, yellow, greenish above. Eing stained with the spores, which mark its place on the
stem after itself has disappeared. Taste bitter and nauseous, subdeliquescent in wet weather.
Agaricus fascicularis, Hudson, Witliering, Frks, Berkeley.
Hah. Eoots of trees, gate-posts, &c. From April till November.

Everybody must recognize this, the commonest of Agarics, haunting the purlieus of civilization, and
preferring the decayed stump of a post, or similar artificially prepared site, to the " wild wood " which
shelters and nurtures so many of its brethren. Not that sylvan habitats are utterly renounced by oui'
intrusive friend, but it appears to like very open situations, — a bank surmounted by park paling, a gate-
post, &c., and to shun the drip of trees.

Agaricus fascicularis is so named from its densely caespitose mode of growth, fasciculated, with many
stems pressed and crowded or faggoted up together. Young groups are often very pretty, their woven
veils partially giving way and showing the pale greenish gills, as yet unstained by the spores. Agaricus
lateritius resembles very strongly our present subject, indeed, small fasciculate specimens of the larger
species, and showy well- developed ones of the smaller, could scarcely be distinguished from each other,
except by that certain test, the colour of the spores : in A. lateritius these are of a chalky dull purple,
without any rusty tinge ; in A. fascicularis a ferruginous shade is always present. This difference is very
perceptible when a pileus of each kind has been reversed on glass, to deposit the dust from its gUls. Both
these closely-related Agarics are bitter, but A. fascicularis most unpleasantly so ; whether possessing any
medical virtue in right of this quality we do not know (and there are bitters enough beside), yet as a
common production it might take the place of costly drugs, were its qualities ascertained to be useful.

' From i^i7, a iceb, and \!ojxa, a. fringe. Veil fugacious, woven, fixed to the margin of the pileus and stem.
Stem firm, subsolid, distinct from the pileus. Pileus fleshy, convex, then plane. Gills adnate, close, subdeliques-
cent, ciEspitose, growing at the roots of trees, posts, Sec.

The extraordiuary manner in which the seeds of phaenogamous plants lie dormant till some accident
favours their germination has often been commented upon ; the sudden and rapid development also of
plants which have been long stunted by cii-cumstances unfavourable to their attaining a flourishing and
blooming existence, and which left them in fact mere rudiments, just capable of being called into renewed
life by the removal of these obstacles to their vigorous expansion, must have struck every observer of
nature. "When underwood is cut down, how the primroses enjoy the unwonted sunbeams which light up
the nooks among old mossy stmnps, where they nestle sheltered from the north-east treachery of March !
then the most elegant of all hyacinthine flowers, the common blue-bells, attain twice their usual dimensions,
without losing an atom of bending grace, and replace, by a sheet of blue, the dank grasses and uncomely
weeds and briars which formerly smothered them, encouraged in such tyrannous usurpation by the entangled
dripping branches above. For a year or two beauty has the sway, and wild strawberries ripen ; then the
hydra-heads begin to reassert their rights, and alder, and hazel, and ash-rods stand vigorously up, while the
briar again catches our feet between the bushes ; — our rambles are over for a while, but there is less reason
for regret since the pretty objects of them have shrunk away, and will lie in sad seclusion, almost dormant,
till the woodman's axe comes, on the happy anniversary that shall give back life, liberty, and their turn of
enjoyment to blue-beUs and wild strawberries, anemones and primroses. The fungus tribes are frequently
called into existence in the same hasty profusion as the flowering plants, evoked from the obscurity in
which they have been lying, by those potent magicians, light, air, and rain.

A few years ago, towards the close of summer, in rambling through a tract of 'woodland which had
been cut the previous season, a very peculiar and really beautiful spectacle presented itself ; never was
wood so gay before, not with flowers, for their season was over, but — soften the supercilious smile, good
reader — with Agarics ; Agai-ics all alike, all developed apparently pretty nearly on the same day, all rooting
in the low stumps, in dense fascicles, bending forwards and downwards, their gracefully curved stems
decked with rich pileuses of ta^'ny, crimson, and gold. Agariciis pomposiis indeed ! rightly did Bolton so
entitle it; for in colours it was gorgeous, and in profusion most wonderful; such glory had not made
those sloping glades gay for fom-teen years, and might not again for fourteen more, as we suppose ; for the
next two seasons, certainly, no display of the kind took place, and after that the copse was again im-
penetrable. This Agaric, however, was not our more humble subject given to-day, but its large, highly-
coloured brother, A. lateritlus {A.pomposus of Bolton) described in our first series.

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XVI.

CANTHARELLUS CRISPUS, Fries.

Crisped Chanterelle.

Spec. Char. Cantharellus crispus. Pileus infundibuliform, submembranaceous, undulated, crisped,
floccoso-villous, brown-grey ; hymenium pallid, nearly smooth ; stem whitish, stuffed.
Cantharellus (Craterellus) crispus, Fries.

sinuosus, BerMey.

Helvella crispa, Bulliard.

floriformis, Sowerhy.

Hah. In damp woods. Autumn. Hare.

While the fungus families were classed by mere external configuration and characters visible to the
naked eye, tliis pretty delicate species was placed among the Helvellas ; but the system of arrangement
according to the peculiarities of the hymenium possessed by any given tribe, throws it among the Chan-
terelles. HelveUaceous funguses have the hymenium superior and consisting of asd filled with sporidia, as
in Morels, Verpas, and the genuine Helvellas ; but the Cantharellus is a branch of the Agariciform family,
having the hymenium inferior, consisting of folds or plaits instead of gills, and the spores are not packed in
cylindrical cases.

Fries has now divided the individuals formerly placed under Cantharellus itself into two classes ; the
first retaining such as he considers the true type of the genus, having strong folds like Cantharellus
cibarius ; the other iugluding all those with a smooth or slightly rugose hymenium. These he calls Cra-
terellus ; and to that class our present subject belongs in the ' Epicrisis.' Although thinking it better to
mention this, we have nevertheless adhered to the older name, being that of the 'EngHsh Flora'* volume,
which is, or ought to be, in the hands of every student, while few have access to the other. Most of the
Craterellns division are very scantily furnished with flesh ; they are membranaceous, tough when dry, absorb-
ing much water in wet weather ; some are so deeply infundibuliform as to be quite pervious to the likewise
hollow stem, thus forming a trumpet fit for Oberon's armed host. One (not English) smells of violets, but
sweet scent is the exception, not the rule. " Olidus" stands as a charge against several; then national
tastes differ, and those who habitually inhale tobacco-smoke, or improve bad brandy by a powerful addition
of the rat-catcher's bait, anise, are not likely to agree with others who consider musk agreeable ; Craterellus

* The fifth volume of Sir J. E. Smith's 'English Flora' (or vol.ii. of Hooker's 'British Flora'), comprising
the Fungi, by the Eev. M. J. Berkeley, and which may be purchased separately.

sinuosKS, of which our present C. crispm is a variety, is described as " olidus," " moschatus." Linnaeus
styled all funguses smelling of anise, " suaveolens." In the present case the subject is scentless, so the
relative agreeableness of odours does not affect its character.

It can scarcely be supposed, however, that powerful scents resembling nitric or prussic acid, or any
other pungently offensive substance, can co-exist with pleasant flavour and with bland esculent qualities.
Miss Mitford described the ancient village herbalist as saying of a plant he had detected, " it must be good
for something, it has such a fine venomous smell." Any one who has taken a few sniffs of bruised
hemlock or Solanum Dulcamara will acknowledge the perfect propriety of his expression, and many a
powerful drug is " venomously " valuable for physic ; — but for food, that is quite another question. C. crispvs
may have properties akin to those of Cctrana Islandica, the rein- deer moss, or oui- own Peltidea canina,
the once famed remedy of Dr. Mead for the bite of a mad dog, but we do not think it can be " esculent "
in the common acceptation of the term.

How easily error may arise and be propagated is instanced in this example. Bulliard, copying
Schseffer, classed our fungus erroneously as a Helvetia (which we have shown it not to be), and Sowerby,
following the high authority of his time, Bulliard, called it also Helvella, but adopted the trivial name of
^ch^Ser, floriformis, instead of crisjm, which had been given to it by Bulliard. Now here are three
standard authorities, much more likely to be found in libraries than more modem ones, who consider
the plant a Helvella ! " All the Helvellas are esculent," is asserted by a popular botanist and lecturer,
probably with perfect correctness where true Helvellas ^ are concerned ; but a friend of ours, meeting
with a most copious crop of C. crispws, was going, in perfect faith, to make a dish of it, and quite disap-
pointed when the treat in expectancy was forbidden — ou the very just grounds, that the proposed subject
of it was no Helvetia at all, but a very questionable Cantharellus, a fact easily proved by the Flora volume,
wliich had put the impostor into its proper place.

' There is a true Helvella crispa, which we mean hereafter to introduce to our friends.

■ OJ
f^

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XVII.

BOLETUS CASTANEUS, 5.//.«r^

Chestnut Boletus.

Spec. Char. Boletus castaneus. Pileus three or four inches broad, convexo-expanded, at length depressed,
but remaining broadly pulvinate iu the centre, firm, subvillous or optike-velvety, cinnamon-coloured, or chestnut
inclining to brick-red. Plesh thick, white, stained beneath the epidermis with the colour of the pileus, not changing
colour, viscid, insipid. Tubes free, not reaching to the margin, short, round, wliite, changing to dingy yellow.
Spores white. Stem at fii-st stulfed, then hollow, sub-bulbous, attenuated upwards, sometimes swollen in the
middle, more rarely nearly equal, and lengthened.

Boletus castaneus, Btdliard, Fries, Berkeley, Persoon.

Hah. In woodland pastures, parks, &c. Not common.

It is always pleasant to find rare objects in our researches, otherwise there is no great reason for
regret tliat this Boletus is not often met with. llr. Berkeley cites only one habitat, his own parish in North-
amptonshire ; Miss F. Reed found the specimens from which her drawing was taken at Brill, under old
Scotch pines ; and Mrs. Hussey once detected a few in the rectory-field at Hayes, but unfortunately much
decomposed; the spores, however, lay thick on the grass beneath each faded pileus, so as to afi'ord evi-
dence that if not /j?«-e white, as Fries supposes them to be, they are as nearly so as justifies placing them
under Leiicospons. Several Agarics, as A. deliciosus and some Russulas, have ochraceous spores, but they
are not, therefore, rejected from the natural group with which other general features identify them.

B. castaneus has a velvet coat, but may be known from the members of the subtomentose family by
not turning blue and green when cut, as they do. It resembles in colouring and configuration B.granu-
latus, but that otherwise beautiful fungus is veiled iu slime ! not a pleasant veil to finger ; but it dis-
appears, and drops of sweet milk exude from the margin of the pileus when bruised or broken, standing
like pearls on the lemon-coloured tubes, then hardening into minute cheeses, from which dried grains
comes its name gramdatm. This Boletus granulatus has ochraceo-ferruginous spores, which darken the
yellow under-surface in age ; it is esculent, and abundantly gregarious under a gi'oup of old Scotch pines
growing on the ancient camp at Keston, There are but two or tluee English Boletuses which are not to
be found in this immediate neighbourhood, and those, B. strohilaceus and B. cyanescens, we never expect,
from their extreme rarity, to be so fortunate as to encounter ; both these belong to the same subdivision
[Leucosponis) as our poor B. castaneus, which we have left, to speak of others ; but then there is so little
to say about it : neither gifted with qualities which recommend uglier relatives to every one possessing a
palate, nor afflicted with such as cause torments to the unwary, " it is rare " is the one point in favour of
bringing it forward.

Some of llrs. Hussey's friends hint that she either invents the tilings she represents, which would be
supposing a talent far beyond painting correctly real objects, or that she must practise some ingenious witch-
craft to obtain her ilycological treasures ; that fairy-rings appear in the magic circles of her incantations, and
toadstools spring wherever her foot touches the ground. The questionable virtue of such endowments
must be disclaimed, or who would tolerate her rambles tlirough their domains ? Alas ! as it is, the spirit
of Liebig is abroad, and many a favourite haunt has been pared and burned, while the once most prolific
of all lies doing penance in a white sheet — of chalk.

It is an evidence how necessary it is to awaken attention to objects, that many an eye which is caught
by AJlower does not see ^fungus. Where do you find all these things ? a question constantly asked, is
easily answered — Everywhere. If made subjects of study or attention, you too, my worthy friend, will find
many things you never saw before; and when the true character of otliers, desjmed if seen heretofore, is
pointed out, surprise and delight, and veneration for the creative energy which clothes everything with a
beauty befitting to itself, wiU take the place of neglect or complaint. Mouldiness, and mildews, and
bUghts, when viewed by that invaluable aid to finite eyes, the microscope, become forests of crystal stems
and branches, tasselled with pearls {Penicillium crustatum), or slender pillars like tlu-eads of spun glass,
surmounted by lamp-like globes containing dark spores [Mucor mucedo), or bright yellow eggs lyiijg in
nests of brown moss [Eurotiutn herharioruni) . iUaddin's garden appears where before was only blue and
yellow mouldiness ; if the preserves are spoiled we have only ourselves to blame, not the exquisite parasites
that are feeding and flourisliing upon them. When we find this, that nothing can be lovelier tlian some
of these pests repudiated by every housekeeper, we cannot suppose that they were intended merely as
domestic scourges for the uncleanly, or retributions for the stingy, punishments for neglected corners or
stale bread and ill-made jam ! So much beauty needed not to have been wasted, merely for tliis end ;
surely it points out that man is bound to improve his natural faculties, to enable himself to appreciate the
glory and the loveliness of those things which are around him, in which the unassisted eye and untutored
judgment find only subject for disgust.

^- if'1i1fiir"

■3
•6

CO
CJ

■ r-H

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XVIII.

AGARICUS DOMESTICUS, BoUon.

House Agaric.
Series Pratella. Subgenus Coprinus.

Spec. Char. Agaricus dojiesticus. Pileus not membranaceous, but slightly fleshy, thin, ovato-campauiilate,
then expanded, two inches broad, obtusely umbonate, undulato-sulcate, squamulose, furfuraceous, fuliginous, the
apex reddish-brown, the disc ochraceous or nearly white. GUIs adfixed, close, linear, white when young, then ruddy,
at length brown-black from the spores. Stem silky white, two or three inches high, attenuated upwards, often from
a broad nodose base by which it attaches itself to various substances, as stone steps, &c.

Agaricus domesticus, Bolton, Fries, Berkeley, Fersoon.

Hah. In cellars, damp kitchens, vaults, on decaying wood. Eare ; handsome in the solitary form.

This pretty Agaric is one of the most delicate aud " touchable " among tlie Coprini ; it is less ejjhe-
meral than its nearest relatives ; we watched, during a fortnight, the daily development of some fine speci-
mens, growing on a log of rotten wood in a damp cupboard ; from the time that the spores first tinted the
gills till decay commenced was five days, and even then the Agarics did not delicjuesce and run off in
moisture as those of the same family growing in the soil or dung do. These specimens were tufted from a
common centre, the crevice in the wood, therefore had no bulbous excrescence at the base. It will be
observed that those which sat for the portrait, growing on a hard horizontal surface (the cellar steps at
Tingewick), have the base much extended in a nodose ring ; they also deliquesced sooner in that damj)
situation. Our Hayes friends, produced in perfect darkness, were white, only acquiring a slight tinge of
umber upon the scales, after being brought into day. The texture of the pileus was more floccose than is
usually the case, and till the spores ripened they greatly resembled some of the smaller Lepiotes. When,
however, the blackish- b^o^vn dust had appeared upon the giUs, which acquired a red tinge in course of
expansion, we hope our least learned pupil must have known that the stranger could not belong to any
subgenus of Leucosporm.

Some of the nearly allied members of the Coprinus family are as pretty as A. domesticus, even more so,
in their fragile, transparent beauty. Ephemeral as an insect may be, and named from its life of a day, it
lives twenty hours out of the twenty-four longer than Agaricus radiatus, which shrinks into a state of
collapse as soon as the sun's rays touch upon it, and is destroyed by a breath, leaving only a slight black
film on the fingers, or attached to the filiform stem. A. plicatiUs is almost as evanescent, aud A. ephe-
merae speaks for itself. The latter is very beautiful ; the pileus is striate, bluish-grey, with an umber apex,

the margin splits and rolls back, showing the black gUls beneath Hke stripes on the grey ground ; it might
be mistaken for a flower with revolute petals, rejoicing to open its heart to the rays of the genial morning
sun ; but, alas for the slu-inkiiig Agaric ! they are fatal to its moist beauty, which soon is only represented
by a deliquescing and, many would say, dirty little fright : but we know that there is no such tiling as dirt,
in its true sense, connected with these vegetable juices; they are only inky; and who that writes will
acknowledge ink to be dirt ? unless to draw a nice distinction made by an indulgent nurse-maid — " Well,
it's only a little clean dirt ! " After this, it seems contradictory to say that, in a clean house, we need not
dread the apparition of " toadstools." Agaricus domesticus does not scare careful housemaids ; it must be the
slut's own Agaric. " Under carpets on damp floors," " on old matting tlu-own in a corner," " in a basket
that held tea-leaves," such are the habitats pointed out ; the cellar steps and store-biUet cupboard are not
in the range of that vigilant functionary who wields the broom under the flag of tlie duster ! flag before
which bookworms et hoc genus omne tremble ! Walter Scott's Antiquary is not the solitary victim of
" tidiness," albeit his troubles have had the good fortune to jield so much amusement to the world at
large. " As soon as master is away for a day or two, we will have a good turn-out of that Library." " Is
it possible, madam, one of your myrmidons announced this unreproved ? Did you never hear that wives
were burned formerly for petti/ treason ? " " Yes ; but then think of Agaricus domesticus, of Tkelephora
puteana, which spreads on the wall behind the books ; look at this pot of paste, a rich forest of moulds,
wafted in embryo about the house by every breath ! " The housemaid has right on her side, and it ought
to prevail against migJit, so she may purify the " lion's den " if she does not mind the risk of his growl,
which follows on any atom of property not being replaced again exactly in situ. Seriously speaking,
however, it is very easy to train any intelligent servant into these duties ; the days are gone by when an
industrious damsel in the country boiled her master's antique bronzes in a copperful of strong ley, that
" for once they might look bright ! " A fact only proving how ideas differ as to what is " dirt."

«.

M
-R
c/:>
o

■ r— I

Order Hymenomycetes. Ti-ibe Pileati.

nn.

Plate XIX.

AGARICUS OSTREATUS, /«.^^-

Oyster Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Pleuropus.

Spec. Cliar. Agakicus ostreatus. Caespitose, imbricated, frequently confluent, generally subdimidiate,
excentric, conchate, ascending. Pileus fleshy, cinereous-gi-ey growing pallid, smooth, but the border is at
first fibiillose or even squamoso-lacerate ; margin involute ; the whole surface of the pileus is at first soft and
clammv, afterwards dry, shining, and satiny. GUIs decurrent, broad, here and there forked, rather distant, anas-
tomosing behind, whitish. Spores perfectly white. Stem abbreviated or obsolete, elastic, firm, white, smooth,
sublateral, often irregularly confluent, stuffed, compact, tuberous or equal, strigose at the base, where it is generally
downy ; flesh white, tender when young, succulent, flavour sweet, odour farinaceous. Esculent.

Agakicus ostreatus, Jacquin, Fries, Kromblioh, Berkeley.
La CuiUer des Arbres, Faulet.

Hah. On various trees ; on the trunk of an apple-tree at Hayes. Enduring from autumn through the winter till
spring, but never freshly developed at that season.

A comparison between this Plate and Plate LXXV. of the First Series, A. eiiosmvs, ■niW show how
much they ditler in externals when characteristic specimens are selected ; juvenile, dimidiately or imbri-
cately stunted individuals may be confounded with each other, if general appearance only is relied upon ;
but A. euos?/ius is scented hke Tarragon and its spores are pale lilac ; A. ostreatus has the smell of new
flour which distinguishes the Prunuloidea, and perfectly white spores. It is a favourite article for the
table on the continent, opinion being universally in its favour, while A. euosmus is tough and disagreeable.
This latter has a disposition to a regularly depressed, trumpet-formed pileus, " La conche des arbres "
(Paulet), never being spathulate ; while the genuine A. ostreatus, concave beneath, and always more or less
dimidiate, ■nhen the stem is present assumes the shape of a spoon of the antique " postle-spoon " pattern,
which occasioned Paulet to call it " La cuiller des arbres." Paulet, wishing to write a boot which should
enable the vulgar and illiterate to discriminate funguses as a marketable article of value (numbers of
people being annually poisoned in Paris alone by using unwholesome ones), refused to use botanical names,
or to avail himself in any way of scientific terms, so that while the Mycologist complains of uncertainty
and undervalues his authority, the price of the book (it sells for ten guineas) prevents its being, as the
author intended, "aportee de tout le monde," and it is comparatively of no service to anybody; never-

theless his names are useful in this case, being really graphic, and the great Labour aud research evidenced
by the tables of syuonyras make us regret that his ability to draw up a valuable work was not differently
exerted. Some of his figures of the various forms of " Oreille s des arhrcs" are very good; his Come
d' Abondance is certainly our tarragon-scented A. eiwsmiis, and he considers it identical with A. aroinaticiis
of ScopoH, which is probably correct, but we have not verified this synonym. It is always a spring pro-
duction, while A. ostreatus is as invariably autumnal.

It is impossible to guess what mistakes maij he made in the attempt to discriminate any given Agaric ;
therefore we must content ourselves with pointing out such as have been. In the case of A. euosmus we
have akeady done it. A. drijbim has likewise been taken for A. osireattis ; this is a rare species, and we
shall shortly place good portraits before the student, but in the meantime may observe that it has at first
a universal veil, the remains of which form soft brown scales on the pileus, and hang in white fragments
from the margin ; the flesh turns yellow \Ahen bruised, which A. oslreafus never does, while the latter, being
destitute of a veil, has the pileus quite smooth, shining, and satiny when dry. Ar/arkns iilmarhis has
emarginate giUs. Agaricus palmatus is gluey, so that the mass is fastened together by the sticky substance,
whereas A. ostreatus, though of rather a clammy texture when moist, is never viscid. In Agaricns salignus
the gills do not run down the stem and the concavity is the other way, the under-surface being convex.

Various trees are cited as jiroducing A. ostreatus, but our experience confines it to the apple, a wood
apparently not favourable to fungus growths in general. AVhether, in many of the cases in which other
trees have produced " ears," those supposed to be A. ostreatus were really something else, we cannot posi-
tively decide, but may be allowed to suspect ; little danger, however, is to be dreaded from mistake, for the
greater number of this class are innoxious. Persoon recommends all mentioned above as similar in quality
to the genuine fungus. Vittadini advises boiling A. ostreatus in water to soften its substance before
further proceedings, and then to use only young ones. Most assuredly the whole of this section are
indigestible.

FLu&JZ.

Agaricus maculatus . lU.&Sdi

Order Hymexomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XX.

AGARICUS MACULATUS, Albertini and Schweinitz.

Spotted Agaric.

. Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Chondropodes.'

S^iec. Char. Agaeicus jiaculatus. Pileus from two to four inches broad, fleshy, rather compact, at fii-st con-
vex with an involute margin, then plane or obtusely umbonate, the margin often repand; dry, white, here and there
stained with rufous, at length altogether dull buff and rufous. Gills free, very close, naiTow, linear, white. Sjiores
ocliroceom. Stem from three to four inches high, from a quarter to half an inch thick, stout, with a cartilaginous
bark, striate, stuffed, more or less ventricose, attenuated below, when growing among moss, elongated, nearly equal,
prsemorse, supporting itself by cottony fibres. SmeU and flavour slightly acidulous.
Agaricus maculatus, Albertini and Sclmeiyiitz, Fries, Berkeley.
Hah. In fir plantations. On the open part of Hayes Common among Ung {Calluna vulgaris). Bare. Early autumn.

Agaricus maculatus is rare ; there are two types of it, one the present subject, the other coarser and
larger, deeper in colour, by no means so pretty or pure-looking ; it is found among fir-trees. It is not
esculent, and acquires in drying an acid unpleasant scent ; ours grows in a dense ring among fern and ling,
but not under trees.

That our- immediate neighbourhood is singularly prolific in these growths there can be no doubt, and
several reasons conduce to render it so. In the first place, Ijing at the edge of the great London basin,
where the chalk begins to appear, the soil consists of all the species of detritus the various strata above can
afl'ord ; sand, gravel, clay, peat, chalk, hazel-loam, — in fact, a very mixed alluvium is deposited in the
valleys, among the rounded, wave-washed outliers of chalk. These valleys have been cultivated from very
ancient times, and the hills used as sheep-walks, but the barren dunes of gravel which form the high
ground of Kestou Heath and Hayes Common were allowed to remain untouched, their aged pollard-oaks
affording fuel to a district where coal was scarcely attainable tiU within the last fifty years. Now the dear
old oaks are no longer dismembered, and have nearly forgotten the operation, but doubtless we are indebted
for the abundance of Fistidina hepatica, Folyporus quercimis, &c., which they yield, to their having been
once so mutilated, while the intact, undisturbed mossy banks and fern-shadowed dells at their feet are
gemmed, or disgraced, take it as you please, by a great proportion of those Agarics, Boletuses, Clavarias,
&c., the gipsies of botany, unteachable, irreclaimable, who love a soft bed of moss and the fragrance of

^ Yvom xovhpos, cartilage, s.\\(\.Troiis, 3. foot. Pileus tough, dry. GiUs nearly free, close, white. External coat
of the stem subcartilaginous.

wild thyme and strawberry blossoms ; where the rabbit swings round, enjojang all the delights of " free-
warren," and the lark leaves her eggs to the care of the morning sunbeams, while she soars to greet them ;
these old sunny root-banks, for the foliage of the hoUow trimks is too thin to keep his rays from slanting
through, are haunted by other pretty tilings beside — the Anguis fragiUs, or blind-worm, and that most
delicate of lizards, Lacerta agilis, often startle us as they disappear among the fern- stems.

A little further on, where the clay of the basin heads up the water from the higher ground, deep cool
habitats are formed in tliick coppice-wood, nurturing anotlier large class, those funguses which prefer
decaying vegetation and dank herbage to pure air and sweet breezes ; here, in warm summer days, the
grey-snake lies at full length, hoping you will mistake him for a dead stick, as you may ; and the adder
retires stealthily away from the botanizing foot, not springing at the intruder unless his escape is barred.
We candidly confess that, although a basket-full of treasui'es from Barnet Wood is most acceptable, we
would much rather receive it from other hands than seek for ourselves in that locality, for amongst all the
living things we love snakes are assuredly not included.

The high grounds of the district are almost Alpine in climate, the low grounds marshy and foggy,
but mild in that respect ; several Phsenogamous plants are found, of wliich Yorkshire and that portion of
England are the usual habitats ; yet we also had, till the Covent Garden folk found them out, many
Orchises which delight in the warm chalk valleys of southern Kent.

f^'

/
i.

cu
. -i-j

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXI.

CANTHARELLUS LUTESCENS, orevitte

Yellowish Chanterelle.

Gen. Char. Pileus furnished below with Jichotomous, radiating, branched, subparallel folds, not separable from
the flesh, sometimes anastomosing or obsolete.'

Spec. Char. Cantharellus lutescens. Pileus from an inch to three inches broad, depressed, at length
infundibuliform, not pervious, submembranaeeous, undulated, floccose, yellowish livid brown ; veins decun-ent,
anastomosing, flexuous, yellow, flesh-colom-ed, or salmoa-colom-ed. Stem from two to thi-ee inches high, from two
to three lines thick, yellow or reddish, hoUow, unequal.

Canthaeellus lutescens, Greville, Berkeley.

Hah. Moist situations in pine woods. Summer and autumn. Rare. Near Edinburgh, Br. Greville. Avington,
Hants, Miss F, Reed.

It would be scarcely fair to hold up tlie present Chanterelle to the reproach of the world as poisonous,
although certainly suspicion attaches to it. The difficulty of identifying the precise species described by
Persoon or Bulhard makes us hesitate as to any further synonyms than those we have given. But if the
Mycologist feels disappointed at the imperfect settlement of a vexed question, the gastronomist need not
do so; he is in nowise concerned witii our puzzle, his safe and pleasant Cantharellus cibarius is satisfac-
torily difTerent from its rare, but doubtful cousin. "What the older authors meant by " Merulius" or "Sel-
vella " lutescens, whether it be truly a Cantharellus, or, more strictly, according to the arrangement of
Fries, a Craterellus, may break the slumbers of the botanist, but cannot spoil the peace of the bon-vivant,
who after eating plentifully of the genuine Chanterelle feels, according to Paulet, much " the lighter and
ayer " for the feat ! Sweet apricot-scented, sohd but succulent, white-fleshed, sapid and nutritive " Galli-
naccio," those organs, whether of taste, smeU, or sight, must be lamentably defective which can confound
you with congeners differing in aU respects, except that they wear yeUow in their costume ! It is with the
yellowest of these, Cantharellus aurantiacus, that our present subject is more likely to be confused, than
with the escident variety. There is, however, one test which may be safely appealed to, wjien other parti-

' Named from Kavdapos, a vase or cup ; the pileus being often so formed.

culars are obscure ; that is, the composition of the stem, which in C. aurantiacus is substantially stuffed,
in C. lutescens tubulai-, even in youth. This may appear a trifling matter to guide the judgment, but as
it is a constant difference between them, not a casual one, it suffices. We must be understood, however,
as speaking of both species in their prime, and not when the texture and configuration have lost all cha-
racter in decay. Fries makes subdivisions of those Cantharelluses wUhJIes/iy and those with tubular stems;
in England we have but two species under the first head, C. ciiarius and C. anrantiaats, and we may
dismiss them, having pointed out the fact that our present subject, C. lutescens, comes under the second,
those with tubular stems. Among these, its more immediate kindred, C. tuhaformis is the only one likely
to be taken for it, indeed Fries places C. lutescens as a variety of C. tubcefonnis ; the latter has cinereous-
yellow, straight folds, and, although rare in South Britain, is not quite so much so as the other ; it is stated
by Fries to be " caespitose ou rotten wood," as well as on the ground. Our yellowish friend grew in a
plantation, but whether there was decayed wood beneath the soil we cannot say, the fungus certainly did
not spring immediately from it if there were. All the species of Cantharellus have beauty; their form is
often very elegant, and the gluten, which sometimes renders the pUeus of an Agaric or Boletus repulsive,
is not found on them. All the family have white spores, in the case of C. cibarius with a creamy tint.

Order Hymenomtcetes. • Tribe Pileaii.

Plate XXIL

AGARICUS SUBLANATUS, s^eri^.

Series Cortinaria.' Subgenus Inoloma.*

Spec. Char. Agaricus sublanatus. Tileus from three to four inches broad, fleshy, "at first obtusely cam-
panulate, at length very broadly and obtusely umbonate " (Sow.), convex, never fully expanded so as to become
plane ; colour variable, yellowish-brown of different shades of intensity, inclining to red or ferruginous, squamules
pilose, innate, or silky adpressed, " brownish, reddish, or wldtt " (?) (Sow.). Veil reddish, forming upon the
stem a peculiar hose, with several dark eiugulations. GDIs sub-adnate or emarginate in the same Agaric, very
irregular, waved and broadly notched, pallid yellowish, at length cinnamon. Spores reddish-ochre. Stem " bulbous,
oonico-elongate " (Fries), about three inches high, squamulose, yellowish, pallid, white at the summits. Not
bitter nor smelling of radishes, but like mushrooms.

Agaricus sublanatus, Sowerhy, Fries, Berkeley.

Hal. In Hampstead Wood, Soroerby. In Holwood, Kent, under birches, Mrs. Hussey. Very rare.

From the time that Sowerby described this handsome Agaric till Mrs. Hussey fouud it at Holwood,
it had not been noticed by any mycologist. Mr. Berkeley recognized the Kentish specimens as that author's
A. sublanatus, or their identity might have appeared doubtful, for there are several minor discrepancies.
The name sublanatus is not very appropriate, unless Sowerby intended to apply "sub" as meaning
" below," in allusion to the stem ; our specimens had the pileus smooth, merely with " silky, closely
adpressed, reddish, pilose squamules," and the margin was bordered with minute whitish down, " sub-
lanatus " certainly did not apply to that ; his figure represents a much more umbonate and shaggy pileus
than ours had.

Enjojing an opportunity of studjnng this interesting species in situ for two successive seasons, our
portrait exactly represents it, as a native of an open site, in a park, immediately under a scantily-foliaged
bircli-tree ; the soil a bank of gravel. In Hampstead W^ood the development was probably much more
luxuriant, and the shagginess of a fungus is always a variable point not affecting the essential character ;
configuration is, however, a different matter, and we never saw an example with the pileus so much ex-
panded as in Sowerby's drawing, nor with the sHghtest approach to the umbo he gives it. The stem is

' From cortina, a veil. Spores reddish-ochre. Veil arachnoid.

- From \v, ajibre, and Xm^a, a fringe. Veil fugacious, marginal, consisting of free, arachnoid threads. Stem
solid, bulbous, fibriUose, more or less diffused into the pileus, fleshy. Pileus fleshy, convex when young, then ex-
panded, fibriUose or viscid, regulai-. Substance juicy. Gills emarginato-adnexed, broad, changing colour. Large
autumnal fungi growing on the ground.

very peculiar and cau scarcely admit of mistake ; it is liberally hosed in the remains of the veil, closely
drawn in, adpressed to it in several distinct bands. "Ye\um._fusm(m passim cingulatum" (Fries). The
arachnoid veil would seem to consist of two parts, the outer one reddish, mose densely woven, cracking
into dark cingulations by the elongation of the stem. The inner portion remaining attached to the margin
of the pileus and ring-circle of the stem in the form of dehcate wliite threads ; very slight traces of this
inner cortinarious covering ultimately remain round the border of the pileus, giving the appearance of a pallid
zone above the extreme mai'gin. It is not glutinous, although in wet weather it appears to be so. In groups
of eight or ten, the bright yeUow caps close together, it is a very showy handsome Agaric, but in that case
seldom regularly shaped, owing to the compression of some by others ; but where a solitary individual has room
for display, its elegance and beauty are striking. In 1 849, several patches, more than a foot across, and con-
sisting, on an average, of ten individuals, occupied a few square yards, taking a tolerably regular circular arrange-
ment ; we helped ourselves KberaUy, and perhaps the disturbance of the ground prevented the next season's
growth being equally luxuriant ; whether it was so, or the season itself unpropitious (which it was to most
fungus growths), in 1850 our Agarics had dwindled sadly. We shall find them no more ; the site has
been carefully weeded, the bushes, which bore the most delicious blackberries weary botanist ever feasted
upon, are eradicated, and the whole thickly chalked ; doubtless the sheep were looking on with great
admii-ation at operations which would ensure their fleeces from thorns, and give them a sweeter bite, but
we turned aside and grieved over our A. suManaitts — over splendid examples of the true A. necator, which
we always were going to depict, but prettier things would press before them — over " Ilygropliorm lepo-
rinus" (Fries), with its anomalous ruddy spores, which, new to England, grew close by, and wiU never
grow again, and we had not painted it because a well-meaning companion, exclaiming " Nothing but
jjraiensis /" ibxew it away. If all that we have longed to portray had been executed! But, alas ! who
ever performed all they designed and desired ?

-%\";

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o
o

Order Gasteromtcetes.' * Suborder Trichoffastres}

Plate XXIII.

LYCOPERDON CCELATUM, Buiuard.

Embossed Pv-ff-ball.
Subgenus Lycopekdon.

Gen. Char. Peridium membranaceous, with an adnate subpersistent bark ; within, furnished at the base with a
spongy sterile stratum. CapUlitium unequal.

Spec. Char. Lycopekdon ccelatum. Peridium usually not more than from three to six inches across,
occasionally much larger ; collapsing above, obtuse, apex dehiscent, at length open and cup-shaped ; barren stratum
cellular ; internal peridium distinct from the nearly free, collapsing capQlitimn. Spores yellowish oUve-green.
Remarkable for its spongy, blunt, obconic base, above which the cavity is sublenticular. In consequence of the
simple orifice, the mass of flocci and spores does not fall out, but coUapses, until, by decay, the upper part of the
fimgus is completely broken up ; the odour is then very ofi'ensive. Not esculent.
Lycopekdon ccelatum, BuUiard, Fries, Berkeley.

Hab. Not common. Hayes, of small dimensions, on the open heath. In Devon, as large as Lycoperdon
ijiganteum, in pasture groimd.

Bulliard's figures of this Pufl^-ball, so handsome when not advanced beyond maturity, are most
excellent ; they cannot admit of mistake. The peculiar outer coat of the peridium breaks into small poly-
gonal portions, nearly regular in size and shape; these, by the continued expansion of the Puff-ball,
become isolated, continuing opake and densest in their central point, to which the marginal parts converge
in ribs, so that each resembles a tiny flattened limpet-shell; the spaces between consisting merely of the inner
membrane composing the sac, which is very fragile, tender, and easily ruptured. As fast as the spores
ripen they show through it, then break through it, more immediately round the apex, where openings are
irregularly formed ; then the central portion collapses, falls in, decays, and the contents gradually ooze
away in the form of a yellowish-obve foetid mud, in which the spores are involved, while the base of the
receptacle remains long after, and might be easily mistaken for a decaying Peziza.

Lycoperdon giganteum breaks into large polygons occasionally, when the growth has been too rapid
for the strength of the enclosing sac ; but the deep fissures into the substance of the ball are very different
from the cuticular cracking of L. ccelatum : this latter fungus is at no period smooth — in youth it has

' From yatrriip, the ielly, and ^vxijf, a fungus. Hymenium included within the uteriform excipulum.
' Prom 6p\^, a hair, and yaa-Tfjp, the belly. At first fleshy.

powdery warts, as in L. gemmatum, each of which becomes eveutually au embossed scale ; while the giant
of the tribe wears a surtout of the smoothest kid-leather. The commoner Lycoperdons, gemmatum, pyri-
forme, &c., have a warty surface, but it never resembles the mature "sculptured," " cisele," development
of L. cmlatum ; they have besides more or less prominent mouths at the apex.

This is not one of the Lycoperdons to be recommended for the table ; our courageous friend Dr.
Badham ventured on some pretty juvenile specimens, such as would have made au excellent />i^;!«;-a if the
ordinary bttle puffs had been the subjects of it, but these tasted " fishy," so that not a sufficient quantity
was eaten to test their salubrity. It may be as well to mention that those " ordinary Kttle puffs," however,
are not Lycoperdons at all, but Bovistas, of which there are two English species, B. nigrescens and B.
phimbea, neither of them rare in dry pastures and on heaths, and both esculent. The genus Bovista, as
modemly arranged, differs from Lycoperdon in being altogether fertile within, while there is always a
spongy barren stratum forming a base, more or less persistent in the Lycoperdons. We have only once
found our " embossed " friend in tliis neighbourhood : it is surprising how it could have thrust up its soft
tender head among hard-bound gravel and sharp fragments of fhnt, a rude sod, covered with arenarias and
the tiniest attempts at sheep's sorrel [Rmnex Acetoselld) ; no wonder the site cramped its growth. One was
found by a friend in Devon as large as a man's head — but tliis was a monster.

o
0

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Fileati.

Plate XXIV.

AGARICUS RUTILUS, sch.ffer.

Purplish-red Agaric.
Series Pratella. Subgenus Gomphxjs.*

Spec. Char. Agaricus rutilus. Pileus from two to three inches broad, top-shaped, urubonate, sub-viscous,
brown-red, sometimes yellowish in the centre, the margin liver-colom-ed, shining. Gills decurrent, somewhat
branched, thick, firm, elastic, entire, the shorter connected with the longer, pm-ple-umber till discoloured by the
snuff-coloured spores. Stem from two to four inches high, from half to three-quarters of an inch thick, rhubarb-
cploured without and within, fibrillose, attenuated below, firm, solid, slimy from the remains of the veil which form
an obsolete filamentous ring.
Agaricus rutilus, Schceffer, Sowerby, Berkeley.

gomphus, Persoou.

GojiPHUs viscidus. Fries.

II(f^. Scotch pine-woods; not uncommon.

Fries considers tlie tltree funguses, wMcli with their two sub-varieties form his section Gomphidius,
as exactly intermediate between the Agarics and the Cantharelkises ; but it is not our intention to force
upon the general reader those more abstruse botanical distinctions which can only interest the mere myco-
logist ; a Gomphus is to all intents and purposes an Agaric with dark spores, and of the family two are
English, including one sub-species, the pretty rose-coloured variety of A. fflutinosus.

A. rutilus is a bold handsome fungus, generally very abundant where it grows at all, which is inva-
riably under Scotch firs, in the late summer and early autumnal months ; by " solitary " it is not meant that
an Agaric grows isolated from its congeners, but singly as regards itself, not tufted or united by the stems
with others. It is very persistent for an Agaric, often remaining on dry sites, in the shape of a rigid
mummy, retaining all its character, and easily recognizable even in winter ; but in damp places, a parasitic
growth almost always infests the gills, and destroys the plant. This dusty mould is of a greenish-grey colour,
and pervades the whole under-surface of the pileus in a smooth coating, as the natural spores would do ;
indeed it has been mistaken for them ; but their colour is totally different, snuify-brown. A metamorphosis

' From ynfKpos, a wedge. Gills strongly decurrent, branched, distant, distinct, changing colour, persistent,
quite entire. Veil universal, glutinous, concrete. Stem firm, solid. Pileus fleshy, tm-binate, viscid, smooth,
margin inttexed. Spores dark, analogous to Limacium. Large, solitary, persistent fungi growing on the ground.

equally calculated to mislead inexperience sometimes takes place in other funguses, particularly in various
species of Boletus : we have seen B. scaler clothed entirely in white velvet, and other kinds with their tubes
so completely occupied by the briUiant Sepedonium cJtrT/sosjicrmitm that difficulty arose in convincing a
cursory observer, albeit one of our liighest authorities so far as phsenogamous plants are concerned, that tliis
was only the usurpation of a destroj-ing agency. It is an admirable pro\asion of nature, which thus clothes
the unseemliness of decay in new beauty ; converting that which has lost all attraction into a nidus for
fresh ])roductions, and these perhaps stiU more exquisite in design and development, in wonderful finisli
and minute detail, than the original plant which by its juices nurtured tliem. Many mildews and bhghts
are very pretty microscopic objects, and some lessons of value may be learned from the study of them ;
for instance, that they have characters so distinctive, that although we grant them to be pests, they are no
more convertible into one another than gooseberry caterpillars into snails. The Berberry cannot commu-
nicate its own specific diseases to corn ; ^cidium berberidis, a beautiful vase built up of yellow spores,
forming distinct spots on the leaves, or Erysiphe penicillata, a white net-work investing them and sup-
porting many little balls fperidiolaj, which to the naked eye appears like mealy powder thrown over the
shrub, does not attack corn in the totally different forms the blights of that useful plant assume. Smut,
Uredo seyetum or Vredo caries, Bunt. So, ploughman, spare those elegant bushes of Berberry, they have
never injured your crops, and never will ; if you shake youi- head, setting up " old experience " against
modern theory, look through our magic lens, and be convinced. We have thus cured one gardener more
firm in his faith in ancient prejudices than any person we ever knew, and who, although in true Kentish
spirit he still retains some he would go to the stake for, holds very enlightened notions on blights, dry-rot,
and potato-disease. .

Is Agaricus rutilus good for anjiihing ? Probably not, according to the vulgar idea, that is, good
for man, any more than the lovely minute funguses we have mentioned ; but all feed insects.

r-H

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXV.

BOLETUS AESTIVALIS, Fries.

Summer Boletus.

Spec. Clmr. B. ^stivalis. Extremely large and robust, the example given measui-ing twenty-four inches
round the margin of the cap, and seven inches and a half round the stem. Pileus pulvinate, obtuse, the epidermis
smooth, soft, silky, opake, olivaceous-buff, pallescent in dry weather when young, afterwards darker; sometimes
channelled, but yiot cracking in an areolated manner. Flesh pure white, not reddish beneath the epidermis, tinged with
yellow near the tubes, never acquiring a blue or green tinge at any period. Tubes small, the pores scarcely visible
in youth, pallid wliitish, then lemon-colom-ed, at length olive and moderately large, elongate, equal, subdeciu-rent.
Stem stout, subconic or bulbous, smooth, not reticulated ; the upper portion always remaining pure clear yellow,
the lower stained with crimson cinctures. Esculent.
Boletus sestivalis. Fries, Berkeley (MSS.).
TuBiPOBns BBstivalis, Paulet.
Boletus Cepa, Thore.

Hah. In the woods of southern and western Europe, from May to July. Found by Miss F. Reed, in Hants.

This, according to Paulet, is among the most fragrant and delicious, as assuredly it is among the
largest, of the Boletus tribe. It has, however, been a stranger to the British mycologist hitherto ; even
Fries had never seen it when he drew up its character for the ' Epicrisis ; ' but by a curious coincidence he
sent distinctive sketches of both B. astivalis and B. impolitus to Mr. Berkeley during the period that our
drawing was in the hands of that gentleman for examination, thereby enabling our British authority to
pronounce positively upon the identity of the species.

It is astonishing, that while, in proportion to the number of known funguses. Great Britain is
extremely rich, in students of them she has hitherto fallen sadly behind; and so little interesting to the
generality of her sons and daughters are these productions given by Nature with a liberal and beneficent
hand, that to inspire a more general taste for this branch of botany is apparently a hopeless task. Some
may worship Plora, others revere Ceres and rejoice in Pomona, but to what goddess of woods and fields
shall we dedicate Mycology? what umbrage-screened dryad or dewy-buskined nymph will protect and
bring into fashion the useful and beautiful among the fungus tribes ? The fairies had the glory of the
green rings ascribed to them, but the fairies are gone now, and few would care if they had not left the
Agarics behind them.

Once, in the days

Of earth's sweet prime.
The mountain fays

Enjoyed om" clime, —

On soft deer-grass,
By shady tree.

Would lightly pass
In revelry.

The sun's bright trace

In western skj-
Revealed the grace

Quick glancing by,
While nightingales.

Dense woods among,
Filled aU the vales

With rival song ;
And odours sweet,

From dewy flowers.
Made incense meet

For holy hours.
O mortal blest

On calm May night,
When shone confest

So fair a sight !
But mortal eye

May never more
Those fays espy

On earthly shore ;

Though nightingales

Still pour sweet song
As dewy vales

We stray along;
We find the place

They loved of yore,
Their footsteps trace.

But see no more
The Dryads fair

Of whom bards sing,
Though greenest there

The fairies' ring.

But where they shook their
Wings while dancing

We now find bright
Sham pinions glancing.

/■

'rsl

f-i

■ r— I

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXVI.

BOLETUS LURIDUS, var,&/.<./...

Lurid Boletus.

Spec. Char. B. lueidus, var. Pileus at first convex, nearly hemispherical, at length completely expanded,
softly tomentose, like fine kid leather. Tubes free, olivaceous, their orifices at first rich red-brown. Spores oliva-
ceous ochre. Stem stained with red but not reticulated, perfectly smooth. The external portions of the fungus
not diseoloui-ing when touched, as is usually the case with B. luridus, but turning intensely blue when cut asunder.
The stem is also deep blue, not internally red as in the var. B. erythropus. All the various forms of B. hiridus are
specious and handsome, but most poisonous.

Hub. In an upland pasture at Keston. July.

If beauty were to guide the choice in eating funguses, this very pretty specimen of a Boletus would
certainly be selected in preference to the coarse-looking individual preceding it; but this is another instance
to add to the many which occur daily, how little superficial observation can be trusted. Those Boletuses
which compose the section of Tries " Edules " being generally clumsy and ugly, while among the poisonous
" Lnridi " are splendid examples of colouring which must attract the admiration of the eye, if its possessors
be denied the estimation of the palate. Whatsoever the poisonous principle may be in funguses, it is not
noxious to the larvte of those insects which deposit their eggs in the incipient, almost earth-concealed
Boletus or Agaric, so that, hatching with its growth, they find food and shelter during its development,
travelling up from below, and forming labyrinthine excavations in the soft flesh of the pileus ; which then
sinks in that portion immediately above the stem, and becomes more or less concave instead of convex.

The mode in which certain apparent accidents produce effects proving the most thoughtful contrivance,
cannot be better exemplified than in such a case as this. So long as the immature seminal bodies called
spores require shelter and care, the pileus retains its hemispherical form ; but such a form compresses the
tubes or gills (as the case may be), so that the ripened dust would be retained instead of scattered to fruc-
tify. The engineer to correct this is quietly at work : doubtless he believes that he is only regaling his own
palate, and so he is, but while, he feeds and grows strong and lusty, he has sapped the central strength of
the fungus, it collapses and sinks down, in that portion above the stem into which he has been mining ;
the depression of the centre throws up the margin of the pileus, giving room, and widening the receptacles
below, by completely changing the concave to the convex (as in the aged figure in the plate); those spores
are then ejected, which were heretofore confined, and we discover that the apparent ravages of the insect
conduced, not to the destruction, but to the reproduction, of the plant which nurtured it. Thus are the
wonderful ways of the Almighty's beneficence displayed to those who will attend to them ; displayed in the
humble despised toadstool, as surely as in the most striking phenomena of nature.

Krombholz gives a detailed account of a, B. eiyikropjfs, 'v.hich is the B. hpiiuis of Fries; the true
£. erythropns of Fries and Berkeley is only a variety of B. lundiis. Soil and weather greatly affect the
development of these large funguses, and after all we cannot feel satisfied that species have not been
formed out of mere sportive subjects. In all our researches, however flattering it may be to personal
vanity to fancy puzzling individuals, first novelties, then rarities, genuine honest inquiry brings too often
the conviction that " it is only so and so after all." The present prettily banded Boletus has at first a
character in the stem different from others, but being identified with the Lurid class by the red orifices of
the tubes, and differing not at all in configuration and change of flesh from their type, we must admit
that only unusual neatness and prettincss elevated it in the first instance above the vulgar pasture com-
munity. It seems, however, to the writer worth notice, because showing the great difference of the members
of the same familv.

a-.

er.

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXVII.

AGARICUS MUTABILIS, sch^ff.

Variable Stump Agaric.
Series Derminus. Subgenus PnoLiOTA.

Spec. Char. A. mutabilis. Very variable iu size, densely fasciculate. Pileus slightly flesliy, smooth, ex-
panded, obtusely umbonate, the centre rich yeDow-brown or bright tawny at full growth, the margin thin, trans-
parent, cinnamon, turning paler when dry. Gills subdecurrent, close, broad, pale umber, then ferruginous from the
spores. Flesh white. Stem slender, fistulose, dark brown, smooth above or minutely pulverulent and pale,
squamulose below. Ring woven, suberect, not fugacious, in age detlexed and striate, stained with the spores.
Smell and flavour very rich and agreeable ; when raw resembling A. oreades. Esculent.
AoAifTCUS mutabilis, Scliipffer, Fries, Berkeley.

marginatus, Batsch.

caudicinus, Trattbiick, Fersoon.

— annularis, 543, 0. P., Bulliard.

Hah. On much-decayed stumps of various trees, particularly Lime. Perennial ; springing after electric rains at
any period from spring to autumn. Not common.

Ill a youthful state, with the veil unbrokeu, we have known this Agaric to be mistaken for A. melleus,
which grows iu similar dense tufts from stumps. If the student be iu any doubt as to which of the two
has been found, a little patience, if the spores are uot yet ripened, will soon decide the question, by that
unfailing test, their colour ; those of A. melleus being white, while A. mutabilis deposits a })rofusion of
rusty-browu ones. Deposit is, however, scarcely a correct term, since the dust is exploded to a considerable
distance around the pileus of most Agarics. In an aged state, groups of A. midabilis may be seen of one
uniform rich brown hue, being coated with the spores they have shed upon each other. They often grow
tier above tier in fascicles in the interior of a rotten stump, and do not bend aside in a decumbent manner
till lax in decay. Buifs and browus are the tones of colour of this Agaric without any genuine uuraixed
yellow tinge, which will distinguish it from A. aureus, A. aurivellus, or any other golden-hued ones be-
longing to the same division. In the youthful state the pretty scaly stem and perfect veil, with a neat
little brown head, render our A. mutabilis a very elegant object ; when fully developed and saturated with
moisture the thin disc of the pileus becomes dark, while the fleshy central umbo remains of the bright
original hue ; this gives masses of tlie Agaric a very curious appearance. In early spring the proportions
of A. mufabilis differ much from those they attain in the dog-days, a high temperature causing them to
grow much faster, taller, and consequently more slender and less fleshy. In the drawing the left-hand

group is a spring specimen, growing from a fissure in the horizontal surface of a tree rudely cut down ;
they prefer such sites, and as the wood decays downwards they extend themselves, continuing for years to
appear several times in a season after thunder-storms; we have never found them growing from the roots
or bark of trees, nor on the ground. Aiound Hayes there are four different sites in which we find them :
two of these stumps are lime, one is ash, the other is too much decayed to be recognized, but is pro-
bably lime.

As an esculent fungus our present subject has considerable claims to estimation, although very
peculiar in flavour, resembling gingerbread ! Eaten alone the substance is tough, unless in spring when
most fleshy ; the gingerbread flavour, too, may not be liked, but to improve a stew either of fish or flesh it is
very valuable. They have in Germany a most exquisite mode of stewing carp, with " Jews' sauce," and
gingerbread is one of the ingredients employed : we are not acquainted sufiicieutly with the German
aiisine to assert that it is as a substitute for this Agaric that the said gingerbread is used, but we can answer
for the fungus being preferable when to be procured ; it dries well like A. oreades, and gives out in cooking
a bright brovm colour, far more pleasing to the eye in gravies than blacker ketchups are.

Most Agarics with fistulose stems should be avoided, but that, as a rule, they cannot be pronounced
dangerous, the species under consideration is a proof. Corda has made two species of our present
subject, but there seems no real difference beyond their being major and minor forms, and as such they
are united by Fries under A. vmtabilis, but he is wrong in saying this is not the commonly eaten " Stock-
schwam," which it certainly is. Corda (in Krombholz) says A. caudicinus of Trattinick is the " Stock-
schwatii" of Germany, and A. mutah'dis of Schajffer the " Famiglioli gialli huoni" of Italy — both being
esculent. Whether, tlierefore, we consider them as one or two species is immaterial, provided neither is
confounded with the offensive and poisonous white- spored A. melleus, the A. polymyces, or Tete de Medme.
Persoon, in his ' Champignons Comestibles,' distinguishes the esculent Agaric with its synonyms correctly.
Bulliard's figure (543, 0. P.) is good, but it is a pity he calls it A. annularis, because he applies the same
name to plate 377, which is the poisonous one. Vittadini, misled among synonyms, perhaps by Fries
considering the " StockscJnvam" to be A. inellens, fights a stormy battle of words in its behalf, and thereby
was near causing the death of a worthy family, who, thinking the poor innocent * Agaric had been sorely
slandered, had a dish of it cooked, but luckily found it so nauseous that to eat was impossible, or they
would certainly have died the death of Paulet's dog: "L'animal s'est plaint toute la nuit, et il est mort
douze heures apres la digestion de la substance veneneuse."

* " E Meleo, attesa la sua innocenza ed abbondanza, merita a buon dritto d'essere annoverato tra i funglii com-
mestibUi." — Tittadini, Bei Funghi Mangerecci.

"^i

rd
P-H

o
l-l

^=0"^:^

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileaii.

Plate XXVIII.

AGARICUS PYXIDATUS, Buiuard.

Box-like Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Omphalia.'

Spec. Char. A. Pyxidatus. Pileus infundibiiliform, bistre, at length turning pale with a pinkish tinge,
scarcely sub-camose, the centre quite membranaceous and at length often pervious. Gills narrow, decurrent,
distant, rather thick, slightly rufescent. Stem flexuous, solid at first, then hollow, especially above, thickened and
pubescent at the base.

Agaricus pyxidatus, BulUard, Fries, Berkeley.
turfosus, Sowerby.

Hah. Among grass in exposed pastures, Northamptonshire, Mr. Berkeley. At Keston, Kent, in heatliy soil,
Miss F. Heed.

The whimsical name of this pretty little Agaric is not easily accounted for, unless we suppose the
colour resembling box-wood to have suggested it. Sowerby's invention as a designation is a droll specimen
of latinizing ; turf-oms being probably meant to suit an Agaric growing upon turf. In England it lias
seldom been found, but on the lieathy brow of Hayes Common and Keston we have two or three times col-
lected small specimens, those depicted being rather larger than usual. It is a very elegant little fungus, in
curious contrast with some of th6 infundibuliform monsters, for instance A. giganteus, one of which held a
pint and a half, fairly measured, and was not broken by the weiglit of tlie water.

This is strictly an autumnal Agaric, appearing in the dewy cool days when all the abundance springing
up from heat storms has longed passed away, having afforded a nidus and food to the immature insects.
We have had a dense swarm of the small gnat-like Tipulas hatched in a basket where funguses had been
forgotten in July ; and as these merry midges dance in the cool still evenings of October, they no longer
require the rich pabulum which noui'ished them in their larva state, and was so plentifully afforded by
A. ruhescens and many another Agaric and Boletus, under the old oak-trees. All the Tipulas seem
greatly indebted to various fungus growths for the means of growth to themselves ; the larvse are very

' From ofi^aXof, an umbilicus. Veil none. Stem stuffed, at length generally hollow, not bxdbous. Pileus
membranaceous, carnoso-membranaceous, or even carnoso-coriaceous and almost corky ; when young, umbilicate,
then expanded, or altogether infundibuliform, the margin reflexed or patent. Gills adnate or decurrent, never only
adnexed or free, unequal, juiceless.

greedy devourers, aud their mothers, by one of those instincts we can never be tired of examining into and
admiring, deposit their eggs where a supply of food will afterwards be produced for them. The larger Tijtulas
known as " Daddy Longlegs " live under ground in the shape of a maggot without legs aud possessing a
scaly head; these crawl upwards in the stems of Agarics, &c., on which they feed, but after they have
acquired wings, although from their awkward flight and habit of entangling their long legs, they may be
seen crawHng among the various autumnal products of the soil, their object is not food but a proper site
wherein to place the treasure their parental care is engrossed by.

Our little friend A. pyxidatus has rarity as well as beauty to recommend it, and its greeting us when
few others are to be found adds to the pleasure of seeing it ; if it is of no use eitiier to us or the Tijndas, at
any rate it is not open to the reproach of " cumbering the ground " — it occupies a very small space of our
fair CO nun on.

•4 *" 1'

^
^

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Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXIX.

AGARICUS DRYINUS, Persoon.

Oak Agaric.

Series Leucospobus. Subgenus Pleuropus.

Spec. CJtar. A. uryinus. Veil iiniversal, fugacious. Pileus horizontal, oblique, excentrie, compact, hard,
about three inches broad, nearlj' smooth, whitish, the surface broken into brown adpressed scales ; the margin in-
volute, with fragments of the broad woven veil adhering to it ; flesh continued into the stem, white. Gills white,
not very broad, decurrent, forked, crisp. Spores white. Stem firm, almost woody, tomentose at the base ; the
whole plant, and the stem in particular, turns yellow when bruised, and in drying. Taste and smell agreeable ;
doubtless esculent.

Agaricus drpnus, Persoon, Fries, Berkeley.
Goquillc du Chene, Paulet.

Hdb. Rare. Upon an oak at Hayes.

The veil is a distinctive character of this Agaricus dri/iniis, from all other ascertained English species
of the genus Pleuropus, or side-footed Agarics, so that the student can scarcely fail to recognize, if he
should ever find it. Being a very rare, and therefore interesting subject, we intend to present it under
both aspects, — as it grows, in the present plate, showing only the pileus, and in another, giving the reverse,
with the gills running down the stem, resembling slightly those of the remarkable A. euosmus, of our First
Scries. There is notliing very striking to fix the appearance of the pileus upon the memory, its being
fringed with the white. fragments of the ruptured universal veU, which also remain in soft brown scales upon
its surface, being the main characters to attend to.

It is certainly Paulet's Coquille du Chene, and we could detect no quality in our specimen which
should cause a difference of opinion with that gastronomic authority ; but unfortunately we could not aiford
to eat our subject ; by the time two drawings from it had been executed, it was besides not in a very good
condition, so we buried it with decent respect, in our Perela Chaise for funguses, from which we are in the
habit of supplying our flower-beds with the richest of manures ; a manure of decayed Agarics, Boletuses,
&c., of any description, being far superior in certainty and effect to guano, which may bum, or vegetable
soil, which is full of weeds. We give this hint gladly to our gardening friends, but another to accompany
it. Unless covered with earth to keep in the putrefactive gases, the smell will prove very obnoxious ; after
thorough decomposition has taken place, the earth above should be mixed into the mass intimately as com-

post, and no annoyance will take place in applying it to the borders. In many situations, a cart-load of
A. rubescens and many other common Agarics may be easily collected in the season, and we have never
found them appear among our flowers, although constantly in the habit of turning them to account in the
manner here recommended.

The season has again come round. Alas ! Iiow quick is the revolution, reminding us of so much
intended last year, impossible to perform this ; but if A. dri/inus comes again in its season, it is fully de-
termined that its fate is to be stewed, eaten, and reported upon in our next notice of the subject.

^
^

d
o

—I

o
—I

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXX.

AGARICUS GLAUCOPUS, so^erby.

Series Cortinaria. Section Phlegmacium.

Spec. Char. A. glaucopus. Pileus four or five inches across, extremely solid and heavy ; viscid, afterwards
fibrillose; compact, when young hemispherical, then considerably flattened, but the incurved margin never entirely
expanded; at first veiled in delicate arachnoid threads, arising from the whole length of the stem between the bulb
and the usual position of the ring, and attached, not to the extreme edge of the pOeus, but to the more prominent
portion above it, thus fonuing a distinct zone around the margin, which is smooth, not fibrUlose, like the rest of the
pileus. At first delicate purple, becoming more or less copper-colom-ed, streaked with purple-red, and turning dark
where bruised. Flesh thick, fii-m, crisp, white, imt becoming ceerulescent ; taste impleasant, like a turnip or radish,
slightly som-, not acrid, nor leaving an astringency on the palate. Gills not at first purple, but pallid, watery-white,
afterwards pale cyinamon and discoloured by the spores ; extremely variable in shape, broad, waved, in age
serrulate, receding from the stem or adnate in the same individual, but not truly emarginate. Spores reddish-
ochre. Stem firm, stout, at first very short, bulbiform, then elongate, three or four inches high, nearly equal, marked
with pale lilac, yellowish in age, copiously dusted with the spores ; ii'regularly lioUow.
A. GLAUCOPUS, Sowerby, Fries.

Eab. Under bii-ch-trees on Wickham Common.

Of the Cortinarious Agarics, Fries, iu his ' Epicrisis/ says, " A vast and truly natural genus, which
can only be confounded by a tyro with the Bermini, as a skiDed person at the first glance distinguishes
them ; but the species, as for tlie most part happens in natural sections, are so intimately connected that
we almost despair of discriminating each of them. They can only be distinguished with certainty wjien
young, and in damp weather ; in dry weather, and discoloured by age, the most familiar kinds are no
longer recognizable." When to this it is added, that our master himself has in his ' Epicrisis ' given up
many before adopted in his ' Systema,' " not daring to determine from dried specimens," the unfortunate
pupils may well be in difficulty ; yet, when it is asserted that this immense family forms at least half the
Agaric population of the northern woods, we cannot pass them over as an insignificant group, and it
behoves those who live where they flourish so freely to make observations not easily carried out in the
warmer districts of Europe, where other tribes replace them, unknown to us except tlirough books. The
study of the Cortinarious Agarics is assisted by their division into two main sections, Tldegmacium and
Myxaciwn; the former being viscid in youth, but not permanently so, and possessing arachnoid veins; the
latter, clothed in slime instead of cobweb-like tissue. The subdivisions of these two classes are intricate.
A. glaucopus of Fries is ranged under the Scauri, but our specimens difi'er in a few trifling particulars from
his species. The discrepancies, however, are still greater with aU the others ; and there we must leave it
for the present, satisfied with liaving represented faithfully the individual before us, whose portrait can

scarcely be confoimded -n-itli a number of stout substantial congeners, occurring at the same season and in
similar sites; some clothed entirely in brown without any tinge of purple; others with gills, and even flesh,
partaking strongly of that hue; but none that we have discovered, with the pecuHar zone which dis-
tinguishes A. glmicopiis, produced by the virgate fibrillose streaks which mark the pileus not being

continued to the margin.

We have given no further synonyms than that of Fries ; they are all doubtful, and will remain so
till some Mycological CEdipus shall arise to solve enigmas constantly perplexing the student, who is
perpetually checked in his "Eureka" by some troublesome httle want of coincidence. The calling this
Agaric by a name, one meaning of which is blue or azure, is, as far as our specimens are concerned,
a decided case of luais a non liicendo, for blue is not exliibited on any portion of the fungus. It would be
better, as far as we are concerned, to adopt a secondary meaning, " bright and shifting like an owl's eye,"
for that does in some degree apply to the shinmg pileus of variable tints.

We have found A. glaiicopus for several seasons in the same spot, a sandy dell, beneath ancient
birches, innocent of any cultivating invasion since man was ordained to till the earth ; and likely to remain
so, to the dehght and solace of many a rabbit delving long galleries in the yielding soil, where the roots of
the noble di-ooping old birch-trees serve as roof-timbers to the ancient halls and modern additions of the
timid brown arcliitects. Perhaps the soil being often loosened by repeated burrowings assists the broad
pileus of A. glaucopus to display itself in more regular proportions than many other Agarics ; but showy,
specious, and worthless, it is certainly not humanly esculent, nor do snails and their kind eat their way
into its substance. It appears late in the season, when the birch-leaves are turned to pale gold or scattered
over the dewy gi-ass, thickly spread with beaded spider-webs, and then the pileus is decidedly viscid, very
shining and brilliant, but becomes dull as it dries after being in the house. The yoang specimens are
lovely in their delicate veils, excellent examples of the arachnoid type.

rd
^-

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXI.

AGARICUS PUDICUS, Buiuard.

Modest Agaric.
Series Derminus. Subgenus Pholiota.

Spec. Char. Agaeichs ptjdicus. Solitary or csespitose. Pileus three inches or more broad, white tinged
with umber, convex, then expanded, obtuse, diy, smooth, polished. Stem solid, nearly equal, often curved at the
base, smooth above, fibrLUose below, tough, brown within towards the base. Ring deflexed, persistent. Gills
broad, ventricose, slightly rounded behind, adnate, whitish or pallid umber till clouded with the spores. Spores
dull brown, scarcely ferruginous. Flesh white, extremely tirm and crisp, taste at first agreeable, but leaving a slight
astringeucy on the palate, becomiug very unpleasant, and entirely losing its weight and substance in drying, not
deliquescing. Not esculent.
Agaricus pudicus, BulUard, Fries.

Hah. Stump of elcu ; Hayes. May.

When first tliis pure-looking, pretty Agaric presented itself, we hailed it with delight as the long-
sought " Pioppini," the famous esculent'Agaric so called in Italy. That it grew, not on a poplar, but from
the stump of an elm, was in some degree staggering to our faith ; but we commenced a careful drawing of
the welcome stranger, no longer a foreigner, but a native of our own country ! The specimens fonnd were
twins only, not more in a developed state, and, till their portraits were complete, of course breaking and
eating was out of the question ; the smell was quite agreeable, like a mushroom, and our faith remained
unshaken, till we, at last, were at liberty to taste. " Surely tliis substance must be very tough and indi-
gestible ? " we said to ourselves ; " but in Italy that seems no objection, perhaps stewing may soften it.
But hold, how unpleasant the apres-gout of the morsel we have masticated ! no esculent Agaric ever pos-
sessed that peculiar flavour ;" and then it was resolved that perhaps the astringent disagreeableness might
pass away in drying; so it was dried, and, strange as it may seem, the tough, firm, elastic flesh vanished,
leaving little fragile morsels so unsubstantial as to be really nothings. " And was it the Pioppini, then ?"
No, certainly not ; for further researches, when once doubt had been excited and a thorough examination
of the fungus made, identified it with A. jmclicus oi Fries, the Agaricus capemtus, a name erroneously
applied in the 'Flora' volume, and therefore not given as a synonym, lest it should mislead, the true
Agaricus caperatus of Fries being a Cortinarious fungus totally dissimilar.

The true " Pioppini," the A. agerita of Fries's 'Epicrisis,' is yet to seek in England, and there is small
chance of finding it, since, although the Lombardy Poplar {Populus dilatata) is now so common here, the
first plant was brought from Italy by Lord Rochford, in his travelling-carriage, about eighty years ago, and

as it is a tree wliich flourishes very long before decay commences^ our English trunks are not aged enough,
in all probability, to afford the Agaric a proper habitat. It is mortifying to be obliged so often to confess
that, beyond the comparatively small number of funguses good for human food, we know little or nothing
of the qualities of this uuiversally and lavishly distributed family, nor what services each may be appointed
to perform in its sphere.

There is much to be done in Mycologj', by a competent vegetable physiologist, beyond the mere
learning to name species correctly, although that is valuable, if truly correct, as far as it goes. In most
branches of science a gi-eat improvement has taken place : study was formerly apt to stop with a mere
acquisition of names ; but people are beginning to understand the difference between the means to an end
and the end itself. " Accomplishments," in the old-fashioned sense, find their proper level, and the power
to read a French book, possessed by a person who never opens one, would scarcely be considered worth the
tune lost in acquiring such an " accomplishment" as that language. We can remember the time when
a young lady who knew the Great Bear from Cassiopeia's Chair, and was sure that Corona Borealis and
Aurora BoreaUs were not the same thing, was considered something beyond " accomplished." Cabinets
were filled with "music shells" and all sorts of whmisically-named shells, and if their possessors knew each
by the dealer's name no one thought of the quondam inhabitants who created those pleasant homes for
themselves; they sentimentally fancied the shell sighed for the "sounding shore" again, but would have
screamed and run away if it had been presented to them as first tossed upon that shore. Old ladies, who
studied and arranged their dragon and egg-shell cliina, would have been startled if hailed as Keramologists ;
but their knowledge of cups and saucers was about as valuable as that of the porcelain-like shells possessed
by the soi-disant Conchologists. Now a true taste is roused, and shells are studied in a genuine way, as
subsidiary to the moUusk which forms them, whether they be immovably fixed to the rock, or borne about
on powerful slug shoulders. We might go on; but the night of ignorance glorified is passing away, and
the dawn of better things breaks upon us. And when such charming books as the Popular Series on
Botany, on Entomologj', Phycology, &c., are to be had, as those our worthy pubhsher (himself the exponent
of Conchological science in its true sense) offers to the public, young people, crammed with finisliing
lessons, must no longer be allowed to complain, in listless languor, that the country is so dull ! All may
choose a pursuit ; all will find a great deal to be finished yet ; pleasant guides are ready to attend them ;
and the " Book of Nature," we may hope, will do when Bull's box has been detained with the new novels !

^, ^v^\

■ r-t

■H

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXII.

AGARICUS LEPIDUS, i^n..

Dainty Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Russula.

Spec. Char. Agaricus lepidl's. Pileus from two to three inches across, irregular from the compression of the
soil, grass, roots, &c. ; at first convex, then slightly depressed in the centre, dry, opake, dull, variegated with
sanguine-red, pallid at the centre, where it is generally rimoso-squamose ; [margin patent, obtuse, destitute of
stria. Gills roimded in front, rather branched, much forked, cream-white. Stem solid, compact, smooth, white,
with a beautifid roseate flush. Flesh extremely firm, crisp, and brittle. Perfectly mild, esculent, excellent.
Russula lepida, Tries.

Hah. Under tall trees, oaks at Hayes Eector\', beech according to Fries ; in dry situations. Summer.

The " fatal red colour/' wliicli Fries says has " seduced " autliorities into mistakes respecting the
varieties of Russula, indirectly determines for us, in this case, a most valuable species ; not that shades and
tinges of changeable sanguine intensity, more or less purple, more or less scarlet, could ever be described
for the unfailing guidance of students who, perhaps, have not even the optical power of distinguishing
colours, but because, in the case of A. lepidus, the hue which was red when growing, and more particularly
that dehcate flush which pervades portions of the stem, comes out of the tourtiere bright verdigris-green !
The loss of the roseate stains we could have understood, under the influence of heat, &c., but not the
acquisition of the antagonistic colour. Yet so it is ; and as no other Russula, nor indeed any red Agaric
that we are aware of, undergoes a similar change, it must be considered a peculiar characteristic.

The subdivision of Fries, Rigidce, is well exemplified in this species, for although so brittle that it is
scarcely possible to extricate the pileus from the turf without breaking it, it is very crisp. The flesh is
exactly the reverse of succulent, and the stem resembles in internal texture, when broken across, one of
the frothy sticks of peppermint lollipop, of which the technical name has escaped oiu* memory. A. lepulus
grows scattered about in twos and threes, often united at the base ; it comes after summer electric rains,
wiiile the ground is yet unsoftened ; and wonderful it is to see the way in which the stem pushes up the
pileus through all obstacles, so that the poor Agaric, if not absolutely lea\'ing part of the brim of its hat
bent into the ground, and cracked away from the centre, is always irregularly developed, and fractured, in
the contest to overcome the difficulties in the way of its expansion. Within a few yards of the dry old
woodland slope where annually we find a valuable harvest of A. lepidus, a crop of A. rosaceus, of Fries,
constantly succeeds them. Seldom are the two growing at one period : if so, the acrid, viscid, but beautiful
empoisonneur is in a damper situation; still the danger would be great of unskilled judgment pro-

nouncing upon them, without the test of the tongue ; there can be no deception then. The syren is mucli
more elegant in the ivory gUls, and distinctly mottled, brighter red and wliite. Strange to say, the cold
slugs prefer its acrid warmth to the mild, innocent, and most excellent A. lepidus.

Of that we have not much more to say. If we were to attempt to disentangle the meshes in which
the term " TtvAsula " has involved a large party of innocent Agarics, we shoidd be ourselves served as the
wasp is, who follows flies into a spider's web. "Ruber," "sanguineus" " rosaceus" — which is which?
Let them all be eschewed together ; identification, if not impossible, is one of those enigmas never to be
solved; let us content ourselves, then, and leave it to sleep with squaring the circle and perpetual motion.
Two Russulas only, as far as our experience goes, which have really any red in their caps, and are also
esculent, are of a very dull red — the present A. lepidus, and A. vescus, which we have before described ; the
bright carmines and scarlets are meretricious. Another point much in doubt, is the colour of the stem ;
we have examined A. emeticus, A. rosaceus, &c., &c., and all our specimens have had brilliantly colom-ed
caps but perfectly snow-white stems ; only our duU friend A. lepidus, wearing a pileus which, if it can be
styled bonnet rouge at aU, is certainly a shabby-looking one, has a roseate glow or blush upon the stem,
which in purity and beauty surpasses all that other Agarics can display.

We eat them always ; they are of a remarkably pleasant consistency when baked with fresh butter in
a covered dish ; and so far from the ajruginose appearance setting us against them, it ought to assure us
of the identity of the subject with that esculent Russula to which Fries, in the confusion of old names,
wisely gave a new designation — lepida.

w
a

fz3

en
■ ^

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXIII.

AGARICUS DRYINUS, Pmoo«

Oak Agaric.

Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Pleuropus.

Spec. Cliar. Agaeicus dryinus. Veil universal, fugacious. Pileus horizontal, oblique, excentric, compact, bard,
about thi'ce inclies broad, nearly smooth, whitish, the surface broken into brown adpressed scales ; the margin in-
volute, with fragments of the broad woven veil adhering to it ; flesh continued into the stem, white. Gills white,
not very broad, decurrent, forked, crisp. Spores white. Stem tirm, almost woody, tomentose at the base ; the
whole plant, and the stem in particular, turns yellow when bruised, and in drj-ing. Taste and smell agreeable ;
doubtless esculent.

AcABicns di-yinus, Persoon, Fries, Berkeley.
Coquille du Chene, Puulet.

Hub. Rare. On an oak at Hayes.

It is seldom that we have been tempted to give two different representations of the same fungus, but
in this case a complete portrait appeai-ed of sufficient importance to warrant so doing ; since, although
" oreilles," and " cuillers," and " coquilles," and " conques" of various kinds have been held in vulgar
estimation, it is not easy to make out whether different species or the same were disguised (for pointed out
they are not) under these designations. Agaricus ostreatus we know to have been eaten from the earhest
period of which we possess correct data ; it differs from the present subject in having no veil ; the pileus is,
therefore, perfectly smooth, resembling in texture A. personatus, the Blewit, while the distinguishing veil of
A. dryinus remains in brown scales upon the surface.

At first sight the reverse side of tliis species reminds us of A. euosnms (given in the First Series), the
anastomosing gills upon the curiously elbowed stem having a good deal of that type ; but A. euosnms smells
like tarragon, does not turn yellow, and being destitute of a veil has no scales upon the pileus ; it has also
lilac spores, instead of pure white ones.

"We fear these recapitulations may be tiresome to some readers, but they are needful for others, since a
mere reference to our First Series is useless to those who do not possess it. The complaint that any one
should commit the mistake of being content with the half of a book applies only to those who adopt the
latter hahf. Many of our patrons may have thought the First Series a sufficiency for them, and cared nought
for a second ; but how any person beginning with the latter half can refrain from ordering the former, is a

mistake at wliich we must be pardoned for expressing our very innocent surprise. We trust this error will
be amended, to the great gratification of our publisher, our own satisfaction that in Mycology, as in mutton,
Vappetit vient en inangeant, and to the relief of readers who are annoyed at the tautological repetition of
matter, not new to them, although needful for Second Series-ists.

Agaricus d/ryinus is an autumnal or late summer fungus; A. ostreatm succeeds it; A. euosmus is
invariably a spring production. We are not fond of raising questions or making doubtful suggestions in
cases beyond the reach of our obsernng powers, but we may allow ourselves to hint, that the quality of these
various species, as weU as the period of their development, may depend on their habitat. For instance,
autumnal funguses are more likely to be fed from the juices of the living tree at the season when they are
no longer taken up for its natural duties, and perhaps the juices so converted are more wholesome than the
pabulum afforded to A. euosmus by a dead stump saturated with rain, which is the site it prefers ; and again,
the post, having no leaves to produce, can feed an Agaric in spring, when living timber has something
better to do.

liivi.xV^'*

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXIV.

AGARICUS VAGINATUS, BMiard.

Sheathed Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Amanita.'

Spec. Cliar. Agaeicus vaginatus. Pileus at first conico-campanulate, when fully expanded plane, slightly
depressed in the centre, scarcely umbonate, fleshy except at the margin, which is consequently pectinato-sulcate ;
viscid when moist, beautifully shining when dry ; at first there are a few broad scales, the remains of the volva, but
these soon vanish ; of various eoloui-s, more usually mouse-grey, but occasionally tawny or inclining to buff. Gills
free, veutricose, broadest in front, often imbricated, white ; spores white. Stem six inches or more high, half an
inch thick, attenuated upwards, brittle, sericeo-squamulose, scarcely fibrillose, splitting with ease longitudinally,
stufied with fine cottony fibre, at length hollow, except at the very base, which is solid ; not bulbous, obtuse at the
base, where it is furnished with a volva, adnate for about an inch, then free, in general surrounding the stem like a
sheath, but sometimes with the margin expanded. Ring absent. Smell scarcely any ; flavour agi-eeable ; esculent,
but not free from suspicion ; the fulvous variety, which is a much more coarsely developed fungus in all its characters,
being certainly dangerous.
Agaricus vaginatus, BulUard, Fries, Berkeley, Vittadini, Krombhoh.

Hah. Woods and pastures ; common.

It happens that the genus Amanita contains in it some of the most excellent species for the table, as
well as some of the most injurious, at least to the human system, for we cannot consider the result of ex-
periment made " iu corpore vili " satisfactory where " our noble selves " are ia question. To refrain from
that which caused the greatest inconvenience to a dog, is reasonable enough, but to eat of that whicli
simply made no difference to his organs of digestion, might try ours severely ; and therefore, although we
have several times eaten the delicate and really excellent mouse-coloured variety of A. vaginatus, it was not

' Amanita, a name given to some esculent fungus by Galen. Veil double : one universal, covering the whole
plant in a yoimg state, distinct from the epidermis, at length burst by the protrusion of the pileus, part remaining at
the base of the stem, part either falling off or forming warts on the pileus ; the other partial, at first covering the
gills, and afterwards forming a reflected subpersistent ring on the top of the stipes. Stem stuffed, at length hollow,
squamoso-fibrillose, thickened at the base. Pileus with the disc fleshy, the margin thin, campanulate, then plane ;
viscid when saturated with moisture. Gills attenuated behind, free, broader in front, ventricose, close, but little
unequal, when full grown denticidated. Subsolitary fungi, growing on the gi'ound, or dung, never on wood ; not
soon decaying.

iu that pleasant mood of confidence that would enable us to make a meal of it. A dozen large ones are said
to have produced soporific effects ! but a dozen of any large fungus would give a nightmare, one would think ;
so that merely a pleasant dreamy phase of the Koriac's muscarius debauch being produced by tliis, a near
relative, is rather in its favour since no worse followed. It is a curious fact, that several Agarics, of which
tliis is an instance, tasteless and scentless when crude, acquire by cooking a stronger animal flavour than
many of which the natural scent is powerful ; A. vaginatTis, broiled with butter, tastes extremely like meat.
Doubtless, the chemical properties of funguses are greatly modified by heat, and it may be that some
noxious quahties are thus neutralized ; but in the most fearfully and certainly poisonous of Agarics, a snow-
white, elegant, enticing Amanite, A. lihalloides, the bane, whatever it may be, is neither removed by the
process of cooking, nor remediable by skill when once imbibed. We have not in England the most prized
of tliis family, A. Ccesarius, and in Italy it is so much sought after, that to commit excess in eating it would
scarcely be probable. If Claudius, feasting as Roman emperors did, ate a " dozen large ones," there is no
occasion to suppose Locusta added any foreign mischief. It may be, that this delicacy was used as a bait
for the trap ; it may be, that if people of humbler station could afford to gormandize like a Roman emperor^
the accumulated e^il principle latent in this Amanite would tell on their system, as it did on his ; and it may
be quite simply a case of surfeit ; but A. Cissarius will never regain, any more than A. vaginatws will
ever attain, that position above all questioning that ought to appertain to Cfesar's mushrooms as weU as
to his wife.

Unless great care be taken to extricate it from the grass roots, this truly elegant Agaric will not be
properly displayed, with the white hose, the remauis of the veil, which originally wrapped over head and all,
like an egg, before it was ruptured by the expansive growth of the pileus. This section of the Amanites
have the ring obhterated, or are destitute of it ; wliile others, as A. niuscariiis, have a beautiful ring, but
the volva is not there ; they all, however, compose one family group.

-J

Older Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXV.

BOLETUS "LV^ljyV^, sch^ffer.

Poisonous Boletus.

Spec. Char. Boletus luridus. Pileus from two to six inches broad, convex, expanded, pulvinatc, minutely
tomentose, olive, brick-red, pinkish, cream-coloured, or fen-uginous-brown. Flesh more or less yellow, changing to
blue and green. Tubes nearly free, quite simple, round, yellow or greenish, their oriiices of a bright orange-red.
Spores olivaceous-ochi'e. Stem very variable in length, bulbous, tomentose, sometimes quite smooth, but generally
more or less marked and reticulated with crimson-red. Very deleterious, but not disagreeable either in taste or smell.
Boletus luridus, Sclurffer, Fries, Berl-eley.

Hah. Pastures, &c. ; summer and autumn. Very common.

Every one knows what extraordinary differences exist between the forms of the human skull ; yet all,
from the god-hke Greek, Homer, to the monkey-like Papuan, — whether they have the broad, flat, almost eye-
less, noseless, unmeaning face of the Mongohan tribes, or the eagle-beaked proboscis, and physiognomy all
features, of the ancient Romans, — possess those characteristics which belong to one common humanity. And
thus may we consider the natural family Boletus as bearing towards each other a similar relation to that
subsisting between all tlie sons of men. Wliether we may carry on the comparison in the case of any indi-
vidual Boletus is doubtful. B. Satanas, B. eri/fJtropus, B. elephantinu-s, toere considered as mere varieties
of the present species B. luridus, differing from each other only as the children of many an English family
do, where red-haired, and blue-eyed, and nut-brown brothers and sisters form the circle ; but Fries has
divided B. Satanas from B. luridus, on grounds which he deems sufficient, and the affinity of Withering's
B. elepkantiniis is certainly with the rich crimson Satanas, not with luridus.

Our present subject, then, is the B. luridus of Schreffcr. If compared with Plate VII. of our First
Series, and Plate II. of the Second, it wiU be found that, while they resemble each other strongly in general
configuration, they differ from this genuine B. luridus in that respect.^ The juvenile pileus of those is
ball-shaped, cooping in towards the stem : they are much less compact in after growth, becoming irregularly

' Mere coloiu- does not constitute a botanical difference of species ; therefore the absence of crimson in the
B. eleplMiitlnus may be only a case of " white lilac," which we unhesitatingly apply to Syringa vulgaris. We may
here be allowed to prove, by a fact within our own knowledge, how useful a little botany would sometimes be. A
lady gardener, who spared neither time nor expense, but was a mere florist, was looking over a nurseiyman's list,
and came to Sgriuiga purpureus. Her only idea of a Syrbiga was the common Philaddphiis, so called, and the idea of
a pm'ple one was quite novel and defightful ; half-a-dozen were sent for, and the disappointment may be imagined :
" What ! — only comniou lilacs !"

lobedj and waved at the margin ; wliile B. luridus is always very regular in shape, the margin being sharp
and entire, not in the least waved or lobed, and never cooped in towards the stem. The mass of tubes in
the other two species is exceedingly shallow when young, and quite concave ; in B. luridus it is plane with
the margin at first, and afterwards, by growth, very regularly convex, so that the form of the head becomes
a much-flattened sphere, divided into two nearly equal portions by the restricting margin, the pileus above
and the tubes below having the same convexity. The epidermis of B. Satanas and its brother is sub-
viscous ; in B. luridus it is very slightly so, and only when wet, when dry it is tomentose. The tubes are
not so pure a yellow as in the others ; the flesh is yellower, and nothing like so thick or sohd as theirs. It
is a bold, handsome fungus, sometimes young orauge-red specimens being particularly pretty : occasionally
under trees the hues are all more delicate than in open pastures.

If a person, totally ignorant of the qualities of the Boletus tribe, were invited to select from a number
the most promising article for diet, the choice would very possibly fall upon some of these neat, clean young
deceivers. Their smell is not unpleasant, and thek flavour is sweetish ; there is nothing at ah. to indicate
injurious quahties, unless the change of colour be admitted as a test ; — the evidence against B. luridus is too
strong to allow of any rash experiment in disproof of the charge, as the result might corroborate it. It
must be remembered that others of the tribe turn blue as well as tins, therefore that change is no proof that
any blue-blushing Boletus we cut across is B. luridus, but it wOl be well to eschew all that do so. The
tubes of this species are so fine that in a young state their orifices are scarcely visible : they are dull yellow,
tiU the ripening of the spores gives them an olivaceous hue. Theu' orifices being red or orange would mis-
lead, unless the pileus were broken asunder, — then it is evident that the bright red tint is confined to the
lips ; in age it disappears, and the spongy mass appears dull oKve only.

i^.

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXVI.

AGARICUS DEALBATUS, sou,erb>^.

Dirty White Agaric.
Series Letjcosporijs. Subgenus Clitocybe.

Subdivision Dasyphylli.

Spec. Char. Agahicus dealbatus. Pileus from three-quarters of an inch to two inches broad, white, greyish
cream-colour, or tinged with rose ; at fii'st convex, then plane, orbicular, the extreme margin only involute, or
variously repand, lobed, and undulate ; sometimes depressed from the turning up of the margins, which in age are
entirely unrolled ; dry, smooth, sliining, but clothed with a minute farinaceous silkiness, which turns brown when
bruised, and retains the impression of the fingers ; in wet weather water-soaked in concentric zones, forming small
ridges when dry. Flesh thin, pallid. Gills adnate, not decurreut, though apparently so in aged specimens, from
the depression of the pileus, very close, cream-white, moderately broad. Spores white. Stem an inch or more high,
from two lines to a quarter of an inch thick, often cui'ved as if excentric, flexuous, greyish-white or rose-tinted,
turning brown when handled, prumose at the apex, stuffed, the fibrous bark very distinct. Odour fungoid and
disagreeable.
Agaricus dealbatus, Sowerby, Fries, Berkeley, Grev'ille.

Hah. In rings, or gregarious, in pastures ; often csespitose or tiled one over the other. Autimin.

There is a notice of this Agaric in our First Series as one of those likely to be confused with the Cham-
pignon of mushroom merchants, Agaricus oreades. It resembles also A. suhpulverulentus of Fries in colour,
and the disposition to excentricity of stem : that fungus we shall shortly present to our friends, when they
can compare the portraits for themselves. The subject now given is less fleshy than its relative (for they
are related), and lias a more disagreeable smell. A. dealbatus is not esculent, although not virulently
injurious : we have known it eaten by mistake for A. oreades, vrhen, as the flavour was not relished, the
gourmand's escaping with only nausea may be accounted for by the small quantity consumed. It is one of
the latest of the autumnal Agarics, springing, often in rings, when scarcely any of the more tender species
remain, so that it is much more frequently noticed than its deserts warrant, catcliing the eye as it glitters
among the long dank grass, in company with Little white Puff-balls. It is by no means an inelegant
Agaric ; but our chief reason for bringing it forward is to distinguish it from more worthy characters of its
class.

It is amusing, but also highly gratifying, to compare the changes eighty years have made in the
opinion of the world as to the proper studies of women. While deprecating, as every truly feminine mind

must do, modem attempts to subvert the order of Nature, to harden the soft, and make bold the gentle,
forming Amazonian nondescri^jts, fit for parhamentary " eloquence " (save the mark !), or to compose
regiments after the pattern of Dahomey, we congratulate our sex heartily that at present they are not likely
to be insulted by a dedication such as this, save from a school-boy poet, — certainly not from the learned
Cambridge Professor of Botany. " To the Ladies of Great Britain, no less eminent for their elegant and
useful accomplishments than admired for the beauty of their persons, this second edition of the following
letters is, with all humility, inscribed by the translator and editor." These letters are on the ' Elements
of Botany,'' addressed to a lady by the celebrated J. Jacques Rousseau, whose love of Nature found pleasant
occupation among plants : pity he was not always as innocently employed, for these letters, with a few
modern additions, would still form an excellent elementary work, based on the true principle of beginning
with the orgaTiization of plants, instead of merely acquiring names. The French ladies of his day received
a far higher education than their EngHsh contemporaries ; yet, even to them, Rousseau thought the subject
required some apology for its introduction : — Dated " 22}id Augud, 1771. I think your idea of amusing
the vivacity of your daughter a little, and exercising her attention upon such agreeable and varied objects
as plants, is excellent, though I should not have ventured to play the pedant so far as to propose it
myself."

The Cryptogamic series of plants are curtly dismissed in the original as too abstruse a subject for
common study, and Professor Martyn has added no light, nor even corrected errors in nomenclature, while
the conclusion is blandly acquiesced in by Ids giving no kind of comment upon it. Here it is : — " After all,
the objects of this Order are not universally allowed to be plants, but are suspected, though seemingly
without much reason, to be formed by animals, for their habitation, after the manner of zoophytes or
corals. But this is a subject too difficult and nice for our discussion : and perhaps after all the fungi may
prove to be one of those Unks in the chain of Nature wliich unite the vegetable to the animal kingdom ;
and though they should turn out to be the habitation of minute insects, and to be formed for and by them,
yet they may have at the same time the growth and texture of plants." — Letter xxxii., p. 500.

— '

,r>

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXVII.

CANTHARELLUS CORNUCOPIOIDES, un..us.

Cornucopia Chanterelle.

Gen. Char. Pileus furnished below with dichotomous, radiating, branched, subparallel folds, not separable from
the flesh, sometimes anastomosing or obsolete.

Sjiec. Char. Cantiiarellus coknucopioides. Caespitose. Pileus three inches or more broad, pervious,
trumpet-shaped, nigoso-squamulose, umber-black, somewhat lobed and split, tough, elastic, confluent with the stem.
Hymenium decurrent, cinereous, bluish or inclining to purple, either very slightly rugulose or wrinkled, not plicate.
The entire fungus carnoso-membranaceous, not Jleshi/. Spores white. Scent and flavour agreeable.
Craterellus coraucopioides, Fries.
Cantharellus cornucopioides, Berkeley, Eng. Flora vol.
Peziza cornucopioides, L'mtueus, Bulliarcl, Sowerby.
Elvella cornucopioides, Schaffer, Bulliard.
Merulius purpui'eus, TT'Uherbiff.

Hab. On stumps of underwood. Autumn.

" La Trombetta di morte " is a very peculiar and elegant fungus : it is only on account of the funereal
colour that so awful a name has been bestowed upon it : it does not appear to have any injurious qualities.
The texture is not such as lends itself tenderly to gastronomic exploits, being membranaceous like that of
the ash-leaved Lichen, Peltldea canina, neither fleshy nor juicy. The smell and taste are agreeable; so
much so, that one of our earliest converts to the wisdom of Mycology purchased half a bushel in Covent
Garden (we could never discover where they were collected, but suspect in Epping Forest) to convert into
ketchup. The experiment was cheap enough — only two shillings being the charge made for the poor
woodland denizens so ruthlessly torn from their habitat and crammed into a hamper. Ketchup, we need
scarcely say, they did not afford ; but it was a gsatification afterwards to find that the purveyor of the
article had not recommended them as being the Cantiiarellus cidarius, commonly eaten.

Our " Cornucopia " is placed now under Fries's section Craterellus. We have explained this before,
as far as the common reader will be inclined to follow us, and we do not think we are competent to lead
beyond this point. If it is not for us to defend needless subdivisions in genera, it is still less becoming to
dissent from them ; and certain^ few are competent to follow out the details on which changes in nomen-
clature, &c., are formed. We have only to sit patiently at the feet of Gamaliel.

The youthful sijecimeus of C. cormicopwldes are quite black, and when water-soaked (for they are great
water-drinkers, or liygrojjhanous, as it is called) the fully developed ones are very nearly so; by degrees the
ripening of the spores pales the dull grey hues of the hymenium, powdering its indistinct veins with white
dust, while the inner side of the horn becomes brighter umber than before. It is a very persistent fungus,
and ^rill bear wetting and drying again more than once, but finally, if exposed to the air without pressure,
collapsing to the appearance of a bit of charred stick. It is never viscid, nor eaten by insects. There is no
other fungus we know of that can be mistaken for it.

^■■;.:Si*.

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Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XXXVIII.

AGARICUS RACHODES, nuadini.

Sha(j(jy Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Lepiota.

Spec. Char. Agaricus rachodes. Subcoespitose. Pileus very large and robust, often ten inches across when
mature, at first extremely compact, firm, hemispherical or slightly elongated ; the epidermis quite entire, humid,
smooth, or rivulose, at length broken up into large persistent scales, except in the centre, which always retains
a portion entire, and is never umhonate ; beneath the scales the pileus is extremely shagg)-, llcsh-coloured or pinkish
streaked with browni. Flesh at first white, compact, and crisp, softening, but becoming leathery in age, nearly
juiceless, turning orange-red when cut. Gills ventricose, remote from the stem, terminating in a species of collar,
which encu-cles its apex ; watery white, turning dii'ty-red when bruised, very brittle. Spores white. Stem largely
but irregularly bulbous, cm-viug outwards, not carried throiujli the Jhsli to the epidermis ; having a well-defined
central channel which contains a filmy pith ; splitting longitudinally, quite smooth, Jree from any kind of markings,
but turning brownish after exposure to the air. Ring movable, fibrous (not cartilaginous), shaggy, rudely torn and
lacerated. Smell hot, a little resembling that of Solanum Dulcamara. Excellent for food.
Agaricus rachodes, Fittadini, Fries.

Hab. In pastures, in rich black soil, after hea\'y rains. Autumn.

There is a tendency, which appears to be unavoidable in writing biography, to worship the idol we set
up for the moment; to hide faults, to weaken aspersions, to place tlie character before the world in as
favourable a light as possible. Truth may be very ugly, but what of that ? it is our business to adorn it.
Did not the painter win all praise and much pelf who copied Venus and Apollo for all his sitters, after
faithful truth had nearly starved him ? And then there is something chivalrous in breaking a lance in
defence of the slandered. Even so, Vittadini has not only painted the gayest and cleanest of funguses ; all
in trim toilettes ; never speckled with mud, or torn and draggled as out-door garbs of even pretty Agarics
may be, — funguses that surely grew from velvet-pile carpets, not mossy ones, and have been drilled into
good carriage instead of loimging at ease. But he has tried hard to purify their reputations besides,
zealously taking up some bad causes, and arguing with legal subtlety in defence of " injured innocence :"
wolves in the guise of mutton are they notwithstanding all his pains. Is it not then extraordinary that, in
the present case, he should set down a very worthy individual, confessedly nearly a stranger to him, in terms
such as these ? — " Agaricus rachodes is made no use of among us, although it is true that it comes under
a section of funguses generally esteeuied innocent : it has no external characters wliich would induce us to
cook it ; the odour is displeasing, the flavour nauseous, and the colour of the flesh uninviting." 0 Signer
Vittadini, who praised A. melleus ? Not even to try before you condemn, and although the dosing of the

dogs had worked those involuntary experimentalists no harm ; and then to send forth this statement among
those who, knowing no better, beUeve it ! Why should Fries doubt your word ? or any one, indeed, who
has not the means of verifying or disproving it ? for it is not a common Agaric, this poor A. rachodes.

Now for simple truth ; and first to notice one point : — Vittadini's portrait, with a species of foliage
pattern running between the scales, is in fancy costume. The genuine plant is coarse, rough, and
inelegant ; beauty we cannot say it possesses : there is a sort of bold picturesqueness about it, that is all.
It is very much less elegant in every way than its relative A. jyrocerus : they resemble each other as the
wild horse and one of Meux's dray elephants may do. In a youthful state, A. rachodes is excellent eaten
in substance ; when old, and in texture Klce chamois-leather, the ketchup it affords is scanty in quantity,
but super-excellent in quahty, as we doubt not even our Italian fi'iends would aUow. Strange that neither
they nor the Prench have any notion of tliis exclusively English dainty, ketchup. In the London market
those who deal knowingly in the sauce-manufacture give the best price for procerus mushrooms, including
both the true variety and this A. rachodes in one category; the latter indeed, yielding more juice, is pre-
ferred. Dry salt wiU not disintegrate the substance enough to make ketchup; a very potent brine is the
best medium for the purpose, but the experimentalist must use little of it, and not boil the Uquor obtained.
Having given, in our article on A. procerus, as complete a set of distinctions between the two as we knew
how, very slight recapitulation seems needful. Pirst, however, we may point out the curious conical cap
worn by the infant Agaric — a regular hourrelet screens its tender head : it is speedily deciduous, and we
have found no notice of it elsewhere ; this appendage is quite unlike the remains of the universal veil in
any other fungus.

AgaricMs rachodes. Agaricus procerus.

Much more robust in all its proportions ; firm and Taller, more graceful, less fleshy,
stout.

Not umbonate. Umbonate.

Scales so persistent as to cause chasms into the flesh Scales secedent, curUng up from the pileus when dry

of the pUeus by impeding its expansion, thus giving the like the cutioular bark of decaying twigs ; attached only

pileus a notched appearance. . to the shaggy portions of the pileus, not affecting its

substance more deeply.

Eing fibrous, dropping off in fragments, seldom entire Eiiig cartilaginous, slipping easily up and down in a

or perfect. perfect ring.

Stem smooth, scaleless, colourless till fading, brownish Stem squamose, with strong black or red-brown

in age. markings.

Flesh and giUs turning orange-red. Flesh and gills unchangeable.

Caespitose, with rude irregidar marginate bulbs, and Sohtai-y, bulb regularly globose, not marginate ; stem

stems curved from them. not curved.

^
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^ A

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileatt.

Plate XXXIX.

■soon.

AGARICUS SUBPULVERULENTUS, p..

Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Tricholoma.

Spec. Char. Agaeicus subpulverulentus. Gregaiious, often forming large rings. Pileus from an inch to
two inches and a half across ; at first plano-convex, slightly depressed in the centre, round which it is iiTegularly
tumid, then again contracted ; the margin always inflexed, never entu-ely unroUed ; firm, compact, fleshy, hygTO-
phanous, smooth, hvid, but with an innately-pruinose whitish glitter like hoar-frost. Flesh white. GUIs rounded
behind, without a tooth, close, narrow, pallid. Spores ochraceous. Stem solid, equal, smooth, substriate, obsoletely
pruinose at the apex, generally cm-ved cxcentrically. Smell and flavour at first agreeable, afterwards astringent.
Agaricus subpulvenileutus, Persoon, Fries, Berkeley (MSS.).

Hab. Forming large rings in bare pastures. Autumn.

With no showy claims to notice, yet intrinsically pretty and interesting, our Uttle Agaric has been less
attended to than it deserved. This is the first time that a portrait of it has been taken, and the copyist has
so well seconded the efforts of the original artist, that no truer likeness could be produced ; as far as the
pencil is concerned, however, there is so much to be considered in rendering texture as well as form and
colour, that it would in general be far easier to make out funguses from mere technical letter-press, without
any drawings whatever, than to name drawings of which no notes exist. It does not appear so to the
beginner, who is always crying out for plates, and, to a certain point, needs them ; who looks bewildered
and grievously disappointed at your stupidity in not instantly naming the portraits from nature he sets
before you ; but although an Agaric is an Agaric, which it may be is not so easily settled, and we must beg
to direct attention to the point of texture in figuring any example we wish to depict. A glutinous shining
pileus, a soft smooth kid-leather one, or the scales and shaggy coat of rougher funguses, are good objects
to exercise skill, and must be studied with as much care as the painter employs to show whether his fair
lady-sitter wears flannel or velvet for her gown. The present Agaric has a pileus of a very peculiar cha-
racter— glittering as if a deHcate film of hoar-frost had formed upon the surface, or a snail left slight traces
of its path across it. And we need scarcely say that althongh words can clearly explain tlus fact, no pos-
sible skftl in art could do it. The alternate swelHngs and depressions of the pileus are caused by its im-
bibing water more in one portion than another; from its crowded manner of growth it is never regularly
developed, and the stem is seldom either perpendicular or truly central. Although nearly allied to so many
Agarics with white spores, those of A. subpnlverulentus are decidedly ochraceous. We have, however, no
sufficient reason therefore to remove it from their society. " The colour of the spores is an excellent means
of classification, but must not be insisted upon in too much of the spirit of a Martinet," said our great

English authority ; and among the Milky Agarics several liave spores decidedly buff in hue. At first the
tiavour of A. suljndverulentus is agreeable, but it leaves an astringent roughness in the mouth and fauces ;
it is a pity that it is not esculent, as it abounds in places and seasons where it would be very acceptable.

The subjects depicted formed a portion of a ring twenty feet at least across. About the same autumnal
period A. dealhatm appears, in similar habitats, and affecting a circular growth : that has also a tendency to
excentric development, and some general resemblance in size and style, but is of less tleshy proportions, has
a much smoother pileus, being under the division of Clitocybe, a smooth stem, adnate, nearly decurrent,
gills, and quite white spores. It is not easy for an inexperienced observer to decide, on cursory examination,
whether some fuU-gTown Agarics are to be placed under Trichohma or Clitocyhe, but it wiU assist in the re-
search to notice whether fibrillose striae are found on the stem, terminating at a point below the apex,
answering to the contact of the youthful pileus with it ; if so, and corroborating traces exist on the cap, it
would be labour lost to look through the division Clitocyhe for an Agaric we may be pretty sure once pos-
sessed the fibrillose veil of those belonging to Trickoioma.

g
CO
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; —

'ac

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XL.

AGARICUS PERSONATUS, Fr

Blue-stemmed Agaric.

les.

Series Leucospoeus. Subgenus Tricholoma.

Spec. Char. Agaricus peesonatus. Gregarious, frequently in large rings. Pileus fi'om two to six inches
broad, fleshy, iu-m, heavy, at fii'st convex, compact, obtuse, in age nearly plane; pale bistre, often tinged with
violet, smooth and shining as if oiled, but not viscid ; margin at first involute, pulverulento-tomentose, at length
expanded. GUIs rounded, free, not distant, narrow in front, paler than the pileus, turning to a dirty flesh-colour,
especially when bruised. Spores white. Elesh very thick, solid, but not tough, mottled, odour like ^. oreades,
but not so agTeeable ; flavour pleasant, with a slight earthiness, resembling beet-root. Stem from one inch to thi'ee
inches high, three-quarters of au inch thick, nearly equal above the subbulbous base, firm, solid, mottled within
towards the apex with watery spots ; clothed with villous fibrillse, which are of a rich violet-colom- above the bulb.
Esculent.

Agaricus personatus. Fries, Berkeley.
bicolor, Persoon.

Hah. In pastures, on downs, &c. Autumnal. Common.

The Blewitt, or more properly Bluette, could scarcely be mistaken, if once examined carefully, for any
other Agaric : by its side we place next in order A. grammopodius, its near relative, and certainly there is
a general resemblance between them, but as certainly great differences ; the principal being, that A. gram-
mopodius never has the slightest tinge of that peculiar purple which is so distinctive on the stem of the
Bluette, and winch suggested to Persoon a better name, as we presume to think, ihsiQ. personatus, — that is,
bicolor ; unless, by a fanciful application. Pries means the same thing.

In his Lexicon Facciolati says, referring to a letter from Cicero to Atticus as authority, " That man
may be called personatus (masked, like the classic actors) who shows one face to the public and wears
another in private." And so these smooth-faced, creamy-complexioned Agarics, colom'less and charac-
terless, with a sort of cloudy ambiguity about them as they appear to us, tiled over each other in vast rings
in the grassy pasture, would never be suspected to have a briUiant purple hue belonging to them, unless we
looked beneath the surface : t/iere is the test of character, no more disguise ; the mask might have been
the smooth visage of A. grammopodius, but the stem is the stem of the bi-coloured/i<;wo«ai!zw ; there is no
other like it among Agarics, and once detected, the collector may fearlessly eat thereof, that is, provided his
palate approve, which we candidly confess our individual organ of taste does not ; but this is a case in which
no medium opinion exists — people always like or dishke very much the peculiar flavour and odour possessed
by our fair-faced friend. Pair- faced the Bluette in perfection is : really a beautiful Agaric. On the downs

especially, where its growl;!! is not so rank as in lowland pastureSj it is very symmetrical in form, clean and
pure in appearance, while the lovely hue of the stem sets off and adorns the simple elegance of its general
garb. If collected in these upland districts, such as the slopes near Lancing and the Devil's Dyke, no better
broil is Hkely to present itself to the lover of mushrooms ; and as it succeeds the commonly eaten species,
A. catnpestris, it is on that account more valuable. The worthy master of the hostelry at the Dyke was
most agreeably surprised, some years ago, at the excellence of the article we recommended to his notice, and
which marked all the district with its circles : whether it has come into use there since, we cannot say —
we can only hope that so much good food is not stiU wasted. In the pasture-fields of England our fiiend
abounds in a grosser form, but still so wholesome, that if the country-folk near were IVenclunen or
Italians, or indeed anything but English, they might enjoy a savoury meal during a good portion of the
chilly autumn days, when a hot dinner or supper is very comfortable. Eried thorouglily, seasoned with
onion and omelette herbs, our lowland Bluettes find many admirers.

Dr. Badham had not met with any instance in which this most abundant English Agaric was brought
into foreign markets. Persoon has not mentioned it among the ' Champignons Comestibles ; ' in fact, on the
Continent it seems unknown, we cannot suppose it to be neglected, since the whole tribe is carefully studied,
— as profitable for the poor man, or a luxury for the rich. Sowerby says the Bluette is sold for ketchup ; it
cannot be recommended for that purpose : it yields a great deal of juice, but the flavour is bad : indeed, in
wet weather it absorbs so much " skyey influence," that we had better have notliing to say to it in any way ;
young, and in a dry state, are necessary points in selecting a tUsh.

The genuine personatus is not satisfactorily described by Sowerby. He calls his Agaric A. violaceus,
which is a red-ochry-spored species, described in our First Series ; but he probably had in view another cor-
tinarious Agaric, A. myrtillinus, Erics, which grows only on dead leaves, is taller but less solid, hoUow-
stemmed, more uniformly lilac, and with ocliraceous spores. The true A. personatus copiously sheds white
ones over the grass around.

0-,
o

Older Htmenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLI.

AGARICUS GRAMMOPODIUS, p..

Sulcate-stemmed Agaric.
Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Clitocybe.

■soon.

Spec. Cliar. Agaricds gkammopodius. PUeus from three to five inches across, at first campaniilate, in-
Hexed, afterwards somewhat plane, obsoletely umbonate, more or less repand, lobed, in age depressed, but the darker
umbo always apparent ; very smooth, shining, not viscid, hygi'ophanous ; uniform umber, darker only in the centre.
Gills adnate, with a tooth on the stem, not decurreut, narrow^ extremely close, much forked, dirty white, never
tinged with purple. Flesh very thin towards the margin, white, crisp, flavour impleasant, leaving a disagreeable
astringency on the palate. Spores white. Stem smooth, elastic, sulcate, the same colour as the pUeus, scored with
darker lines ; firm, thickened and vQlous at the base, tiever marked with purple ; solid but composed of silky con-
densed fibre, not celltdar. The whole plant never partaking of any other hue than bistre of various degrees of
intensity. Solitary, or forming large rings in pastures. Not esculent.
Agaeicus grammopodius, Bulliard, Fries, Berkeley.

Hah. Pastures. Autumn.

This is a showy, specious Agaric, of bold, regular, well-developed proportions, and although unas-
suming iu colour, by no means devoid of beauty. It is sufBciently like the Bluette, A: personatus, in
general configuration and style of growth, to have been selected in mistake for the table by careless
observers, who supposed that the peculiar and characteristic colouring of the esculent species had by some
means been prevented from displacing itself. As, however, such accidents do not happen, but Bluettes are
always more or less blue, and A. grammopodius never is, that one point of difference ought to suffice
for the prevention of any cuhnary use being made of the latter. The colouring principle of many Agarics
undoubtedly is variable and fugitive, but in tliis it neither washes off, nor does it fade away till age decom-
poses the material altogether ; and therefore, although the scored stem of A. grammopodius (whence its
name) may appear as if it had possessed, or ought to possess, the purple fibrds of its bi-coloured_ cousin
A. jjersonatus, we can only say it never docs, and any Agaric of the family without that remarkable
character had better be condemned, or at least left untasted. Besides this main point, a fair comparison
between the portraits we have given of each will ascertain that A. grammopodius has much closer, finer gills
than A. personatus, and that they are not of the same fleshy tint, growing warmer (Titianesquely speaking)

with age, but remainiug coklly, and rather dirtily, white to the last. As to the smell and flavour, some
jjersons either are minus the organ or it is perverted, so that we do not recommend that point as one to be
depended upon otherwise.

The unpleasantness of A. grammvpodius, when eaten raw, would cause condemnation from most lingual
appendages. Whether it might be improved by cooking, and whether a genuinely deleterious article or uot,
a bolder adventurer must discover than we can boast of being ; for at the same season, in similar habitats,
but much more profusely and commonly, we know that a perfectly wholesome Agaric may be obtained —
A. personatm. Unmask the smooth Quaker-like indi\adual, turn it to the light from amidst its grassy
screen — does it reveal the blue stem to the day ? then eat profusely ; but if this " order of the garter " be
uot there, let it alone.

CO
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Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLII.

AGARICUS MAMMOSUS, boUou.

Umbonate Bose-f/illed Acjaric.
Series Hyporhodeus. Subgenus Clitopilus.

Spec. Char. Agaeicus J[ammosus. Pileus from two to three inches broad ; at first strongly umbonnte, less
so when fuUy expanded, in-egular, lobed, often splitting; in extreme youth nearly black, but growing pale in age;
umber or greyish-brown ; nearly smooth, shining, the epidermis streaked with an adpressed sericeous coating under
a lens ; the apex always darkest, the umbo cracking so as to give the appearance of scales ; the margin compressed
and incurved at first, never entirely plane. Gills adnexed, or nearly free, but connected with the stem by a tooth,
ventricose, notched and waved, pallid till stained by the rose-coloured spores. Flesh white, crisp, brittle, at first
agreeable in flavour, then astringent ; smell like A. Georgii, but more fungoid. Stem tliree inches high, half an
inch thick, nearly equal, when yomig swollen at the base, fibrillose, firm, solid, dirty white, stained with the red
spores.
Agaricus mammosus, Bolton, Berkeleij.

Hah. On hedge-banks, &c. Spring. Not esculent.

If Fries has described this Agaric at all, we shall recognize it under the head A. pnnmloides of the
' Epicrisis/ but it is to our English authority, Bolton, we must refer it. One of the earliest of the fungus
tribes to greet the searching Mycologist, a claim to attention on that ground alone wiU not be denied,
supposing it to possess no other merit. Our notes mention collecting it on the 9th of April from a sunny
hedge-bank, where the Veronica had not, as yet, opened its lovely blue " bird's eyes," as happy cliildren
call the spring gem, which they never fail to gather with delight, nor to grieve over as the delicate
blossoms drop off in the act. At the same vernal period, deep in the moss of the sheltered lawn, small
specimens of A. Georgii, the genuine Prunulus, ventured to peep forth without waiting for leave from
St. George ; but in the favourite valley where that excellent Agaric abovmds in due season, prudence pre-
vailed, and we could not find one. The first spring flowers are always greeted with affection, however
insignificant they may be in themselves. It is a source of pleasure to see the barren spot once more
decorated with that humble ornament, Draba verna, while even a Dead jVettle is hailed as an old friend.
Much more strongly, then, must the first Agaric appeal to the heart of the devoted Mycologist, simple and
valueless as it may be in itself; but yet — surely we are needlessly apologizing' — A. mammosus, although
we cannot use it in any way for the table (we did once make, ketchup fashion, some horrible stuff fi-om it,
tasting like the rankest radishes), is neither dowdy nor insignificant; every eye, guided by a tolerably well-
developed organ of colour, finds the contrast of brown and pink agreeable. Spores seldom play a pro-

minent part in embellishing Agarics. Sometimes, when white, they give a mouldy look to the pileus over
which they have ejected themselves ; sometimes they give a snuffy appearance to a set of clean yellow gills,
or disfigure bright purple ones by tliis incongruous mixture ; or they change lovely pink to deep purple-
black, as in the common mushroom, warning us that youthful purity has passed away with youthful
blushes, and that sordid ketchup must be thought of instead of elegant stews ; but in the present case, the
pallid vermilion, by courtesy called rose-colour, greatly improves the garb of the quietly clad Agaric,
painting the dingy white stem with a pleasant contrast of hue, and rendering the gills an agreeable rehef to
the sober brown pileus.

A. manmoms has a slight scent of meal ; the peculiarly disagreeable odour, however, which is under-
stood by fungoid, predominates, not that which the epicure recognizes in his favourite Pmnulus. Both are
spring productions, but they are extremely unhke in other characteristics, so that to point out the differences
between them would be an affront to our latest convert, or our most careless reader.

Among the piok-spored Agarics more nearly allied to our present subject, A.fertilis is larger, and
the pileus is buff' or yellowish ; A. j)luteits looks like the conical thatched roof of an old summer-house, and
has free gills ; A. rhodopolius has a hollow stem, sometimes stringy within or curiously partitioned. There
are not many English Agarics possessing rose spores, and some of the remaining number are much
smaller, others grey-blue, and most of them autumnal. The very peculiar cracked umbo of A. mammmvs
is a distinction from its congeners, nearly sufficient to decide any doubts of its identity.

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLIII.

AGARICUS LOBATUS, w%

Series Leucospobus. Subgenus Clitoctbe.

Subdivision Dasyphylli.

Spec. Char. Agaricus lobatus. Pileus from two to four inches across, at first convex, at length infundibuli-
form, sub-repand, lobed and waved, the margin involute, thin and brittle ; testaceous, with rufescent stains ; paler
in age, smooth, shining, not viscid. Flesh pallid. Gills decurrent, simple, at first much paler than the pileus,
afterwards growing darker, and nearly of a similar hue. Spores white. Stem two inches high, four lines thick,
attenuated upwards, yellowish rufescent-brown, stuffed, hollow in age, often curved when sub-caespitose. Odour
acidulous ; flavour bitter. Ranked by Clusius among the pernicious species.
Agaricus lobatus, Soicerby.

— inversus, var. lobatus, Fries.

fimbriatus, var. lobatus, Berkeley (Plora vol.).

Uab. On a hedge-bank, near Croydon. Generally under fir-trees.

The common form of A. inversus of Fries is smaller and more compact than Sowerby's A. lobatus ; he
himself, however, considered them as mere varieties of the same species, which is placed by Perscon under
A. fiaccidus ; the minor specimens met with in fir-plantations are generally gregarious, and less elastic and
firm than the major, answering to A. infundibiiliforniis of BuUiard, and also of Schaeffer, who speaks of yet
another and rarer example, at first gibbous and destitute of an umbo. According to Fries, the primary form
of A. inversus is regular and sobtary ; but all those Agarics which assume a deeply infundibubform shape,
when fuUy expanded or repanded as the case may be, are seldom symmetrical, but bend on one side as their
position is affected by circumstances. The example given grew on a hedge-bank at Shirley Common, near
Croydon, propped up, in aid of its relatively weak slender stem, by grass and dead sticks; we have never
found it since ; it is certainly by no means a common fungus, and we cannot help thinking has quite as good
a right to be established an independent species as many others so distinguished.

Why yellow as a colour, and bitter as a flavour, should be as frequently connected as they are, would
puzzle much better chemists than ourselves. Most yellow funguses are bitter ; the present case may not
appear to be to the point, but there is a decidedly yellow hue beneath the more sober rufescent-brown, which is
its nearly uniform livery. The bitter principle is absent in the more common genuine form of A. inversus,
which appears a strong evidence that A. lobatus is not a mere variety of that, certainly variable. Agaric ; for
though shape, size, and colour may be rated as of small importance, chemical properties are not likely to be
sportive in their development. It was formerly supposed, — indeed it is still held as an article of faith in

old-fashioned districts, — tliat everything yellow was good for that yellow misery, jaundice ; perhaps on the
modern homceopathic principle of "like curing like," but also, doubtless, because so many wholesome
stomachic bitters, useful in such cases, are yellow ; rhubarb for instance.

All the family to which A. lobatus belongs, are more or less pleasing, some strikingly so, like elegant
wine-glasses with the lip turned over; agreeable from purity of colour and texture, many are valuable es-
culents. We know of no use for A. lobatus, and as it is so seldom met with, we may be thankful that its
utility is worse than doubtful, for if desirable it might long be sought in vain. Those things which a kind
Providence has made needful, are generally plentiful — generally such as by industrious skill we can increase
and multiply — generally such as reward our labour by improved succulence and nutritive value, and not,
like our gipsy Agarics, untameable.

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Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLIV.

PHLEBIA MERISMOIDES, Fries,

var. AURANTIA, Berkeley, MSS.

Gen. Char. Hymenium homogeneous, amphigenous, waxy, soft, smooth, from the first corrugated, wriukles
near together, interrupted, covered everywhere on the surface with very distinct perfect asci. Kesupinate, effused,
when moist subgelatinous, ceraceous ; when dry cartilaginous.

Spec. Clmr. Phlebia merismoides. Effused, smooth, flesh-coloured, turning livid, the circumference rayed,
orange-colour ; folds nearly straight when developed on a level surface, but adapting themselves to the shape of the
mosses or other irregular substances iucrusled by their growth. The under surface is villous and white when the
margins curl upward in drying.

Var. aiirantia ; rich orange-scarlet, the central portions becoming lake-red and purplish in maturity.
Phlebia merismoides, Fries.
merismoides, var. aurantia, Berkeley MSS.

Hab. On the trunk of a bigaroon cherry-tree, bursting through the bark, and spreading diffusely over and
incrusting moss, a species of Hypiium. Hayes Eectory ; autumn.

Those wlio plant standard cherry-trees furnish doubtless most delectable banquets to the blackbirds,
jackdaws, and others of the feathered tribes ; but if dessert for the master be an idea in the mind, disap-
pointment is sure to ensue, unless, indeed, so many trees are provided that the birds cannot devour all their
produce. The bigaroon wliich fostered this lovely Phlebia had constantly been plundered of its fruit by
daws while yet green, so that when a tall wild-rose briar, growing from the base of the trunk, attained the
same height as the tree itself, about twenty-five feet, numerous lax elegant stems finding support among
the strong cherry-boughs, it was suffered to remain, the shining green leaves and profuse snowy blossoms,
besides the unusual proportions it had attained, rendering it a very lively screen to that portion of the
grounds : but the nursling, in its amazing vigour, robbed the guardian which sustained it in such glory
for a briar : it is as luxuriant as ever, — the bigaroon defunct for want of nourishment, and, piece by piece,
every gale strews the garden with its withered branches. The little life remaining afforded a pabulum fit
for the production of the beautiful Phlebia aurmitia. The first autumn that it appeared, the entire trunk,
measuring a foot and a half iu diameter, was permeated beneath the outer bark with the white my-
celium of this fungus ; scarlet spots erupted through every weak point'; and where the forking of the
limbs gave a habitation to bright green moss, the dazzling orange Phlebia seized upon its shoots, spreading

iu irregular profusion and forming papillate processes in consequence. By " ampliigenous," Fries does
not mean that the under surface of the pileus bears asci as well as the upper, but that these processes, and
the corrugations of the whole superior surface, are fruitful all over. The asci are visible to the naked eye
as a glittering bloom, like that of fruit. The second season, 1851, a portion of the decaying tree was again
enlivened with many a scarlet pileus, but not to anything like the same extent. The previous crop had
quite exhausted the nutriment fit for it, where it had been, and the soft black substance left behind was
covered- with a grey film, as it appeared at a little distance, — in reality the lovely cups of Pe:iza cinerea in
thousands. The upper branches of oui' devoted bigaroon were nodose with shapeless lumps of Pulypons
ignianus. And all this was the briar's doing, which is at present holding its head higher than ever, un-
conscious that the support it has so shamelessly abused must soon crumble away, leaving the long trails it
glories in, prone in the dust : unlike the ivy close by, which sustains,

" And with her arms from falling keeps,"

the grey limbs over which she has formed dense green bowers, covered with the blossoms which afford food
to so many insects when little beside is presented to them.

i >
-I

■■d

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CO

Order Hymenomtcetes. Tribe Pilcati.

Plate XLV.

AGARICUS REEDII, Berkeley,, mss.

Series Cortinaria.' Subgenus Hygroctbe.^

Subdivision Tenuiores.^

Spec. Char. Agaricus Eeedii. Pileus at first conic, lobed, when fully expanded one inch across, strongly
umbonate, at length depressed round the umbo ; smooth, shining brown, not becoming pallid, the apex with areo-
late scales ; margin splitting. Stem from one-and-a-half to two iiiches high, white, solid, fibrillose, striate,
bulbous ; veil fibrillose, disappearing. Gills broad, ventricose, ascending, free, though in young specimens appearing
adnate from the compression of the pileus, pallid, then cinnamon from the reddish-ochre spores. Flesh pallid,
tasteless, scentless.
Agaricus Reedii, BerJceley, MSS.

Hah. Among moss and decaying beech-mast under very aged trees. Hayes Common. End of May.

So closely do these pretty little specimens of the family Cortinaria assimilate in colour, and the
youtliful ones even in shape, with the beech-mast, that as the brown conic pileus, with its scaly umbo,
peeps from among the bright green moss, it is scarcely to be discerned by any but truly skilful fungus-
hunting eyes from the debris of husks surroimding the spot : twice we have found it on the same site,
about the end of May. Although nearly allied to A. leucopus and A. Krombholzii, it differs in essential
points fi-om botli ; Mr. Berkeley therefore, considering it a new species, has named it after the sister whose
drawings, signed F. E., so liberally grace Mrs. Hussey's First Series of British Mycology. Recently Miss
r. Reed has joined a party of her family going to reside at Valparaiso, and if her skill is employed in
depicting novel objects there, the results cannot faO to be highly interesting to students in tins branch of
botany, which few travellers either know or care anything about. Whether South America generally is
rich in the fungus tribes can scarcely be said to have been inquired into ; but in Terra del Fuego, with its
sombre forests and dripping skies, odc species is so abundant as to furnish the natives with a valuable
supply of food.

' Spores red-ochre.

2 Pileus smooth or covered only with superficial fibrils, not viscous, but when in fuU vigour moist, when dry
losing its colour. Flesh very thin, splitting, the disc seldom compact. Stem sUghtly rigid, not peronate. Veil
simple, fibrillose.

* Pileus sub-membranaceous, from conic becoming e.xpanded, umbonate, umbo generaUy acute at first, rarely
obtuse, and disappearing, which is not the case with the former. Stem sub-equal. The thinness of the pileus is
onlv relative to its width.

" There is one vegetable production deserving notice from its importance as an article of food to the
Fuegians. It is a globular bright-yellow fungus, which grows in vast numbers on the beech-trees. When
young it is elastic and turgid, with a smooth surface ; but when mature it slirinks, becomes tougher, and
has its entire surface deeply pitted or honeycombed. This fungus belongs to a new and curious genus.'
I found a second species on another species of beech in ChUi ; and Dr. Hooker informs me, that just lately
a third species has been discovered on a third species of beech in Van Diemen's Laud. How singiilar is
this relationship between parasitical fungi and the trees on which they grow in distant parts of the world !
In Terra del Fuego the fungus, in its tough and mature state, is collected in large quantities by the women
and children, and is eaten uncooked. It has a mucilaginous, shghtly sweet taste, with a faint smell, like
that of a mushroom : with the exception of a few berries, cliiefly of a dwarf arbutus, the natives eat no
vegetable food besides this fungus. In New Zealand, before the introduction of the potato, the roots of
the fern were largely consumed. At the present time, I believe Terra del Fuego is the only country in the
world where a cryptogamic plant affords a staple article of food." — Darwin's Journal, 2nd edit. p. 2.!36.

Giving this interesting extract just as it stands, it appears to us that the great trade in Italy and
France in fresh and dried funguses of various kinds is as much a staple use of Oi-i/ptogamia as that of the
Fuegians, who eat them themselves instead of selHng them, and who probably would be glad to exchange
these natural productions for animal food if they could. It seems worth consideration, whether a trade in
dried Cyttarias might not be opened, since they are so extremely abundant, and Morels, &c., fetch such
great prices. In a raw state the flavour does not appear to be strong, but in many cases cooking is
necessary to develope it.

' Described from my specimens and notes by the Kev. M. J. Berkeley, in the Liiineau Transactions (vol. xix.
p. 37), under the name Cyttaria Barwinii .- the Chilian species is C. Berteroii. This genus is alUed to Buhjaria.

^
<

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLVI.

AGARICUS NICTITANS, Buiuard.

Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Tbicholoma.

Spec. Char. Agaricus nictitans. Pileus fleshy ; at first convex, then plane, obtuse, smooth, but innately
virgate ; slightly viscid. GOls at first rounded, free, at length irregularly emarginate, somewhat waved and
notched, yellow, marked with red stains. Spores white. Flesh white. Stem stuffed, dry, elastic, unequal,
slightly ventricose, squamulose. Smell sweet ; taste slightly of mushrooms, not bitter.
Agakicus nictitans, BulliarJ, Fries.

Hah. Rare ; in sunny woodlands. Autumnal.

Agaricus nictitans was found growing ou an open plot of loose peaty soil at Hayes. Dr. Badham had
previously discovered it in Suffolk ; and these are, as we believe, the only two occasions on which it has
been noticed in England. Fries calls it " rare," speaking Europeanly. It is a very elegant species ; but
the discoloration of the delicate yellow gills, which become reddened by bruising, spoils its appearance
after having been carelessly handled. Although somewhat viscid in damp weather, the pileus becomes
perfectly dry, and rather harsh than smooth to the touch when it has been brought in for a day.

The autumn of 1851 was unfavourable to the mycological tribes, and several species, both of Boletus
and Agaric, generally abundant in particular spots, and which for that very reason had had their portraits
deferred till more rare subjects were attended to, never appeared at all ; while at this same period, when
the neighbourhood seemed quite denuded of our friends, the fragile delicate stranger ventured forth. It
was an extremely pleasant nook certainly, which gave shelter to numerous specimens of A. nictitans : they
were scattered sporadically, not in tufts or rings.

The spring of 1852 is, perhaps, almost without parallel. North-east winds and white frosts are in-
jurious to all vegetable, and would they were only so to vegetable, life; to the fugitive tribes of soft-
tleslied funguses they are inimical to such a degi-ee, that perhaps months afterwards the delicate mycelium
or spawn may be discovered to have perished beneath the parching influence of

" The sun by day and the moon by night,"

opportunity never having been allowed for an effort at self-assertion, much less display. We have seen
no Morels ; and although the rings of former crops are the greenest of the scanty herbage, we scarcely
hope to greet, among the blades of grass, our palatable 3Iousseron. Momseron ! the blackbirds and

tliruslies have scratched up uU the moss, iu vain eiforts to detect their natural fooil beneath its shelter. If
Fe:i:a acetabulum shoidd come at all this year, and we are anxiously waiting for it, it will be grievously
stunted of its proportions. Coleridge wrote,

" 'Tis a month before the mouth of May,
And Spring comes smiling up this way ;"

but, alas, ilarch will not give up its prerogative to April ; so that instead of being " a month before," we
are at least a month behind.

.1"

u
p.

CO
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■f — I

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLVII.

les.

AGARICUS PRUNULUS, i^.

Autumnal Prunulus.

Series Hyporhodeus. Subgenus Clitopiltjs.

Spec. Char. Agakicus Prunulus. Pileus from an inch and a half to two inches and a half across, pniinose,
dry, pallid mouse-colour, firm, fleshy, compact, at first regularly convex or broadly umbonate, afterwards slightly
depressed, seldom repand ; margin at first inroUed, never thoroughly expanded. Gills very regular, distant,
somewhat decurrent, and appearing still more so from the dift'usion of the stem into the pileus ; dusky white, but
turning colour by the ripening of the rose-coloured spores. Stem nearly equal or slightly ventricose, striate, solid.
Flesh white, odour agreeable of floui-, like A. Georgii ; esculent.
Agaricus Prunulus, Fries.
Sowerbei, Krombholz.

Hah. At the same autumnal period as A. orcellus, under trees in woodland sites ; seldom solitary, grouped in
twos and threes — not in rings.

Insignificant as this simple quiet Agaric may appear, it is in reality extremely interesting ; being
nearly allied to the genuine A. orcellm of authors, and yet differing from it, a confusion has arisen among
the synonyms, which it is a pleasure to disentangle only to be appreciated by those whose patient tidy
fingers have released a complicated skein of thread from bewildering involvement. The drawing,
numbered 143, A. pall'ulm of Sowerby, which Krombholz supposes to be the same as tins nearly-related
Agaric, is not so, but is the true A. orcellus ; it is, therefore, an error on liis part to call the Agaric
depicted in his plate " Sowerbei ;" but the portrait, save in colour, is a correct one of our present subject.

Vittadini could not have seen the ' Epicrisis,' when he states that Fries identifies A. Prunulus with
the Orcellus proper ; for in the subdivision Orcelli of the Swedish author, A. Prumdus stands first,
A. orcellus second, as perfectly distinct species. Growing at the same season, late summer and autumn,
when heavy storms and sunshine alternate and soften the soil, these kindred Agarics may often be found
near neighbours to each other, and a mistake between them will be of slight importance to any but the
student, as both are esculent. Agaricus orcellus often grows in large rings, which A. Prunulus does not,
as far as our observation extends. The latter is much more compact, hard, and firm ; and its gills are
regular, not branched, and running down Uke a Cantharellus, which is the case with those of the lobed,
repand forms of A. orcellus. The peculiar scent of cucumber is wanting to A. Prunulus, which resembles

more in odour the spring Prunulus {A. Georgii). Indeed, before the distinctive spores ripen, small young
specimens of A. Prunulus and A. Georgii, if we could (which we never shall be able to do) place them
side by side, might puzzle even the learned. We entertain no doubt that this, and not A. orcellus, is the
autumnal Prunulus of Italy. It is certain A. orcellus in no way resembles A. Georgii, the " Prugnuolo ;"
its flexible thin pileus, and short, often almost obliterated stem, with a tendency always to excentricity,
beside the pink tinge of the decurrent gills, render it almost as distinct from the soHd rotund spring
mushroom, as were the mouse and the bird of the fable, wliile between them stands the bat, A. Prunulm,
with characters common to both. In the compact greyish pileus, liidden among mossy grasses, we have
the type of a youthful A. Georgii, while, when aged a)id reddened beneath, a similitude to the most regular
forms of A. orcellus obtains. As an esculent, A. Prunulus is very good ; but it must not be placed in
comparison with the prince of Agarics, albeit the Itahans unpolitely style that " Grumato bastardo."

When we state that A. orcellus grows in rings, dense masses destroying the herbage, as is the case
with many Agarics, is not intended, but merely that a circle, often twenty feet in diameter, may be traced,
each pileus, perhaps, being a foot or more distant from its neighbours ; this circle extends itself outwardly
year by year in the same spot, always under tall trees where woodlands have been partially cleared, not
among underwood, the closeness of which is inimical to most funguses, unless to those which grow on
decaying timber. A. Prumdus is very uncommon in England : we have only found a very scanty growth
of it twice.

I — r'

" • 1— t

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Fileati.

Plate XLVIII.

AGARICUS FUSIPES, Bmard.

Spindle-stemmed Agaric.

Series Leucosporus. Subgenus Collybia.

Subdivision Stri.epodes.'

Spec. CJtar. Agaricus fusipes. Densely tufted. Pileiis from one to three inches or more broad, but only
a lew members of the group attaining full proportions ; fleshy, loose, tough ; when young, hemispherical or broadly
umbonate ; cracked, sometimes tessellated, smooth, slightly viscid in wet weatlier, dull vinous-brown or huffish,
marked with dark patches as if burned ; margin incurved, then expanded, acute ; flesh white. Gills pale lunber,
free, or only apparently adnate from the form of the pUeus ; broad, distant, flexuous, serrated, connected by veins,
with a watery appearance, though really dry, like a piece of half-dry parchment. Spores white. Stem from two
to six inches long, from half an inch to an inch tliiek, ventricose, fusiform, irregularly compressed, above paler than
the pileus, below dark red-brown ; external coat cartilaginous, striate longitudinally, not truly though apparently
tibrillose, often split longitudinally with transverse cracks, these cracks extending only thi'ough the cartilaginous
coat ; stuft'ed with shining, crisped, white fibre ; in age hollow. Flavour and smell of Champignons, esculent.
Ag.^kicus fusipes, BuUiard, Fiies, Berkeley.
crassipes, Sc/icejfe)', Soicerby, IVitheriruj.

Hah. In dense fascicles, at the roots of oak-trees, after electric rains, during the whole summer.

If carefully dried, A. fusipes can be kept for some time, to enrich gravies, etc. It is remarkably free
from insect larvse, the texture being apparently too tough to please them, and for this reason it cannot be
recommended as a stew, notwithstanding the agreeableness of the flavoui-, as it is not an easily digested
substance : small compact individuals soften completely in vinegar, and may be recommended as a pickle
to those who like such condiments. At some periods bushels of this Agaric might be collected within
a small circuit at Hayes Common ; and near Wymondham, in Norfolk, a line of trees were each siuTounded
by tufts of the not very ornamental brown fungus : it does not yield good ketchup, which is a pity, since
it abounds when mushrooms are not to be had. The same sites produce crops of it year after year. When
heavy summer rains have penetrated through the foliage, it may generally be found ; but never at the

' Stem stout, sidcate, fibrilloso-striate, hollow or stuffed with spongy pith.

roots of any trees except oak ; deuse tufts being squeezed tightly up between their guarls and the soil, so
that only the strongest and most vigorous heads obtain room for the expansion of their hats, wliich are
flapped and bent in the struggle for place and precedence. The fibre which stuffs the stems is very
beautiful, like spun-glass or floss-silk, v.\\en spHt longitudinally. We have counted nearly fifty Agarics
composing one group, compressed together, and all but confluent into one stem at the base ; of course
many of these were very small. In the growth of most plants, if the fully-developed members of a family
were removed, the smaller would succeed to their place ; but in Agarics it is not so — all appear to be the
consequence of one start in production, and those stunted at the beginning remain so after the strong ones
have been removed. "\Mien favourable circumstances bring forward a second tuft from the original base,
none of the prior crop help to compose it — they disappear entirely, to be entirely replaced after a pause.

N
^

«;

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate XLIX.

AGARICUS PURUS.

RadisJi -scented Agaric.
Subgenus Mycena.

Spec. Char. Agaricds purus. Strong-scented ; pileus rather fleshy, campanulate, at length expanded, obtuse,
umbonate, smooth, turning pale ; margin striate. Stem rigid, even, nearly naked, villous at the base. Gills widely
sinuated, adnexed, very broad, connected by veins, paler than the pileus.
Agaricus purus, Persoon, Fries, Berkeley.

^ roseus, Batsch.

coUinus, Larlier.

This species is extremely common in woods and shady pastures, and attracts admiration by its
elegant form and beautiful colour. The odour however is strong and disagreeable, like that of radishes ; and
were its qualities better, it seldom occurs in such masses as to make so small a species worth notice. Its
hot, pungent, disagreeable smell does not indicate any desirable culinary properties. There is no species
with which it can easily be confounded, except perhaps A. j)elianthmus, and that is distinguishable at once
by the dark margin of the gills, an effect produced by short, close-packed, purple-brown hairs. It is
rather tough as regards substance, and assumes an infinite variety of tints, of which, however, rose and
purple are the most prevalent. When dry it loses much of its beauty. In this state it is represented in
the three middle fisfures.

o
•oo

Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati.

Plate L.

HYGROPHORUS OVINUS, i^w..

Sheep Mushroom.

Spec. Char. Hygkophorus ovinus. Pileus one to two inches or more across, thin, fleshy, at first conical, then
convex, and at length expanded, gibbous, rather sticky or moist, squamulose, often cracked ; pale brown. Stem one
and a half to two inches high, one-third to half an inch thick, smooth, shining, somewhat incrassated above and
below, stuU'ed, at length hollow, paler than the pileus. Gills at first white, then pale ash-coloured, arcuato-decurrent,
connected by strong veins; edge thin.
Agaricds ovinus, Bulliard, Fries. A. obscunis, /3, Albertiui and SchwemUz.

This species was confused' by Bulliard with Agarkus cimeifolius, which is much more delicate and
brittle, and far more common. The obtuse, gibbous, squamulose pileus at once distinguishes it, not to
mention the difference of te.xturc. There can be Httle doubt that it may be eaten with impunity, but it is
not sufficiently common to make any experiments interesting, nor does the evidence afforded by other
Hygrophori give much hope of its being valuable. Its chief attraction arises from the distinctness of its
characters ; and as it occasionally occurs in open grassy pastures, with other more elegant species, and has
never been figured in any British work, it has been thought worthy of a place in this coDection.

ALPHABETICAL INDEX.

Plate

Agaricus aoutesquamosus 5

atramentarius 14

cyatUiformis 1

dealbatus 36

domesticus 18

dryinus 29, 33

fascicularis 15

fusipes 48

glaucopus 30

grammopodius . 41

lepidus 33

lobatus. 43

maculatus ..? 20

niammosus 42

mutabilis 27

nebularis 9

nictitans 4fi

ostreatus 19

personatus . . .' 40

prunellus . .lp.^\u.\'VttlliS 47

pudicus 31

purus 49

pyxidatus 28

rachodes 38

Eeedii 45

Plate

Agaricus rutilus ... 24

stypticus 8

sublanatus 22

subpulveruleutus 39

vagiuatus 34

virescens 11

Auricularia mesenterica 6

Boletus castaneus 17

restivalis 25

elegans 12

luridus 35

luridus, var 26

elcpiiantinus 3

Cantharellus cornucopioides 37

• crispus 16

lutescens 21

Dsedalea gibbosa 4

Hygrophorus ovinus 50

Lycogala epidendrum 3

Lycoperdon cselatum 23

Peziza badia, var 13

reticulata 7

tuberosa 10

Phlebia merismoides 44

las John/llluE nations of Bri

"ie 23 K

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Full text of "Illustrations of British mycology, containing figures and descriptions of the funguses of interest and novelty indigenous to Britain"

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